


Bleeding Multiverse

by Aviditas04



Category: Marvel, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Canon-Typical Violence, Dimension Travel, F/M, M/M, Mind Manipulation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2019-11-03 17:55:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17882489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aviditas04/pseuds/Aviditas04
Summary: A young hero from another reality decides to move to Earth-16 to join Young Justice.  But what he doesn't realize is that in some ways he will cause more harm than good, for the doorway between the dimensions ... doesn't completely close.





	1. Secret Origins

          In 2009, two years after the terrible civil war over the Superhuman Registration Act, Susan Richards told her husband that she was again pregnant.  Reed was overjoyed at first … until he thought of how _dangerous_ his first two children could be.  So, in order to prevent such a thing from happening again, he decided to play God and make certain he knew how powerful his child would be, and what powers it would have.  In order to do so, first he created an artificial womb that would allow him to manipulate the child’s DNA without harming Susan or the baby.  Second, he quietly and subtly knocked Susan unconscious, so he could transfer the fetus from Susan to the artificial womb.  He did this by placing a simple sleeping drug inside her dinner one night and then while she slept completed the transfer.

          Now the real work could begin.  Reed started analyzing the DNA and running simulations about his new child, a boy.  The results from the simulation started coming in, and it was worse than he had feared: his new son could be just as dangerous as Franklin.  He was going to be strong, _extremely_ strong.  By the time he was five, he’d be the equal of Ben Grimm, at ten, he’d be the equal of Hulk when he returned to Earth for revenge on the Illuminati, and by the time he was twenty, he might even be stronger than Thanos himself!  Even worse than that was that the computer couldn’t calculate a potential upper limit for his power, and that didn’t even cover the potential devastation of the energy beams that he would be able to generate.  That, combined with his other children, it revealed a dangerous pattern: Franklin could manipulate and control reality, Valeria could manipulate time, and now this son would have power beyond belief or control.  Were his children destined to have powers that mirrored the Soul Gems?  No, he wouldn’t allow that!  His first action was to remove the genes that gave him his power, second was to replace those genes with something not as volatile as what came naturally.  So, he went over his genetic laboratory and picked out what he believed would be best for his son.  First, he pulled a few from Johnny, then a few from Tony that he believed were responsible for his genius, then a few from Susan and the last few from Charles Xavier and Logan.  A few computer simulations later, and Reed was convinced he had succeeded with the manipulation: his son would be brilliant and powerful, but nowhere near as much of a threat as he should have been, or his siblings could be.  On January 17, 2010, Anthony Peter Richards was born, exactly three years after the end of the Civil War.

* * *

        At ten years old, Tony Richards had a good life.  His uncle Johnny and honorary uncle Peter made his life fun and normal despite being famous superheroes.  Among other things they introduced him to his first passion: comic books, especially those by DC.  He read all that he could, and thanks to his uncles, he had access to a large amount of them.  Today, Johnny and Tony were going to one of their favorite comic stores simply as uncle and nephew … when their walk was interrupted by a fight between Hydra and AIM.  In an effort to save civilians, Johnny told Tony to hide before flying off to get between the two groups and the rest of New York.

          Tony did as he was asked, only for a couple of AIM goons to recognize him and quickly take him as a hostage.  “Hey, Torch!  We have your nephew, so leave, or he dies!”

          Naturally Johnny did as he was told, as Tony apparently had no powers.  Unfortunately, just as Johnny landed, the Grim Reaper landed behind him, and before anyone could do anything, the Reaper beheaded Johnny.  Tony screamed in shock at the loss of his uncle, and with his scream, he burst into blue flames, instantly incinerating the two AIM agents holding him.  While some would have gone after the Reaper, Tony just raced to his uncle, crying and holding his body.  He was still like that when the police and SHIELD arrived to clean up.

* * *

        Life in the Baxter Building had taken a dark turn since Johnny’s death.  Tony had never really enjoyed his life in the Baxter Building, but now his own mother blamed him for her brother’s death.  Even worse was the fact that his father was now pushing him harder to learn martial arts and other styles of combat, even though he never paid attention to him outside of training.  All this negativity made him delve deeper into comics, not as a source of entertainment anymore, but as a way to escape his normal life.  On top of that, Dr Strange had revealed that Tony had the potential to wield magic, as the Sorcerer Supreme had felt his despair and grief in the astral plane, and so every weekend, Tony would be transported to Kamar Taj in order to be trained by Wong and other sorcerers.  Even worse was the fact that a few days after he returned, he always ended up sick for a day.

          Two years passed in this manner, and Tony continued withdrawing from his family, diving deeper into DC and developing new powers.  First, he gained the ability to fly without being engulfed in flames (something his best friend, Ben Parker was _very_ jealous of.)  Then he started creating force fields (which made his mother even _more_ upset with him,) and finally telepathy and enhanced agility enough to keep up with Ben, who had inherited agility equal to his own father.  Then when he was thirteen, he was hit by another tragedy.  Scorpion, Green Goblin, Doc Oc, Jack O’Lantern, Mysterio and Chameleon (under Norman’s command) had joined together into a new Sinister Six and killed the entire Parker family by destroying their home.  With their deaths, Tony finally had a reason to become a hero, and taking one of the latest nanotech suits that his father and namesake (Tony Stark) had invented, he tracked down the members of the Sinister Six, though Harry had already captured his father.  On seeing that, Tony finally allowed himself to break down and cried into Harry’s shoulder.

* * *

        Six months passed, and Tony’s depression only grew worse with the loss of the only people to really treat him as family.  He delved even deeper into comics, but even that wasn’t enough to raise his spirits any more, especially when he learned the secret of his birth through old records in the Baxter Building.  One day as he walked by the ruins of the Parker home again, he was stopped by an old man with a mustache, wearing a suit and sunglasses.  “Here, take this,” the man said, handing Tony a small yellow gem.  “I’m sure someone like you can take care of this better than me, especially since Thanos is on his quest again.”  Tony just stared at the old man, utterly confused, especially by the reference of Thanos on a _quest_ of all things.  Then the old man turned back around.  “Oh, and here’s a little advice, one man _can_ make a difference, but maybe you need to make your difference somewhere else.  Excelsior!”  And with that, he walked off, vanishing into mist that hadn’t been there a minute earlier.

          Tony was utterly confused, but sensing the power in the gem, he decided to cast a quick diagnostic spell, and was shocked to discover that the old man had given him the Reality Gem!  With this, he could shape reality however he wanted!  He could make his parents love him, he could even bring back Uncle Johnny and the Parkers!  Then he thought about it.  His uncle Peter had once been offered a similar chance to rewrite reality from Mephisto and had turned it down.  Besides, now that he knew what he had, and knowing that Thanos was active again, he knew it would never be safe.  Unless … 

* * *

        “Hmm, your proposal sounds interesting, and possible, but I don’t know if anyone, even I have the power to accomplish what you ask,” Dr Strange stated.  “Travelling between dimensions is difficult enough, but to travel to such a radically _different_ dimension?  That would require power beyond even myself and the Ancient One combined.

          “Power like this?” I asked, revealing the gem.

          Strange stared at it in shock.  “Yes, that should do it, but I would suggest a test before doing what you wish.”

          I thought about that for a minute before realizing where I needed to go.  “Gotham, Earth-0, about April 2009, that’s my test location.”

          “Why there?”

          “They have something I’m going to need, and that is the one time that I know I can get ahold of it.”  Dr Strange clearly didn’t understand, but promised he would try, and that I was to return in a month for my first attempt at dimension crossing.

* * *

 

          The month passed rather quickly, as I focused on reviewing everything I had about the universe I intended to go to, and Gotham about the time I intended to visit.  When I reunited with Dr Strange, I was certain that I was prepared for whatever I might find, so when he created the bridge, I stepped through.  The first thing I saw when I walked through was the bronze statue of Superman, commemorating his death, and I knew I was in the right universe.  Knowing that, I ran for a store and bought a map, so I would know how to get to Gotham.  Once I arrived at Gotham, I knew where I had to go, and I flew for the Cave, hoping that one person wouldn’t be there when I arrived.

          Before I entered, I quickly engaged my stealth systems, just so I could have a look around before I talked to whoever was inside.  I couldn’t help but geek out over every little thing in the Cave from the dinosaur to the giant penny to Deathstroke’s sword.  When I went by the cases holding the suits, I paused at Jasons’ and made him a silent promise.  Then I moved towards the computer section, and I smiled as the only people there were Dick and Tim.  “I come in peace,” I stated, disengaging the stealth systems and raising my hands in surrender.

          “Who the hell are you?!” Dick demanded, pulling out a few batarangs to threaten me with.  That was when I realized that he was in the Batsuit, which meant that I was definitely in the right time.

          “Listen, I’m willing to talk, all I want is one thing, and I’m pretty sure you have it,” I answered.

          “What do you want?” Tim demanded.

          “The Radion bullet,” I said simply.  “I believe there is a threat from Darkseid against a world I’m about to visit, and I do not want to go without the one weapon that is known to be a threat to New Gods.”

          “And why the hell should we trust you?” Dick demanded.  “You haven’t even said how you got past our security!”

          “Haly’s Circus,” was my answer.  Both of them paled at that, silently demanding an explanation.  “It’s where the two of you first met, twice.  The first time, as an acrobat and a fan, the second when Dick was Nightwing and Tim wanted you to go back to working with Bruce after Jason’s death at the hands of the Joker.  But instead, it led to Tim becoming Robin, something I’m sure you’re still at least somewhat torn about, if only because of the pain that you have suffered as a result.”  Tim paled at that, while Dick only grew angry.  I quickly raised my hands in surrender.  “I didn’t intend to hurt you, Tim.  I came to give you hope in exchange for some hope of my own.  Please, I have nothing to gain by telling the world who you are, and Gotham would lose much.”

          Both of them looked at me skeptically, and I suddenly realized that I KNEW exactly when I was.  “Listen, the two of you were in a bit of a fight, right?  And Dick, you were about to tell Tim that he wasn’t going to be Robin, right?  And you’re doing it because Robin is Batman’s protégé, and you consider Tim to be your equal.”

          Dick stared at me and demanded “How did you know that?!”

          “Get the Radion bullet, and I’ll explain to Tim.  Oh, and keep the al Ghul out of here.”

          Tim looked at me, the pain in his eyes clear.  “Was he really going to fire me?  Who would become Robin then?  Batman, even Dick as Batman, needs a Robin.”

          “Yeah, he was going to force you out, but I really do think he had the best intentions.  As for your replacement, who do you think it was going to be?  The only person that could be trusted, and truly needs a mentor, a teacher.”

          “DAMIAN?!  He’s replacing me with Damian of all people?!  God, I almost feel like I should quit!”

          “No!  Remember, I came to offer you _hope_ , Tim!  You’re right, Bruce _is_ alive, but he’s on his way back, and I can help you save him!”  With that, I explained what Darkseid had done to Bruce, turning him into a living bomb of Omega Energy, and how to save him by temporarily killing him … and how to prove that he was right.  Then I revealed my other piece of hope.  “Connor’s going to come back.”

          “Don’t!  Don’t give me false hope.  I tried bringing him back by cloning him, only to learn I’d create a monster!”

          “Check his grave then, if you don’t believe me!  He’s been put inside the Regeneration Matrix, but because of how badly hurt he was, and the fact that he’s part human, it will take him a thousand years to recover.  Fortunately, the Legion of Superheroes will send him back after Connor helps them defeat Superboy Prime.  They’re also going to revive Bart and send him back as well.  I swear on my uncles’ grave that I’m telling you the truth!”

Tim just walked away further into the cave and I paled, worried that I may have made things worse … until he came back with the bat-marked box that I knew Bruce had left hidden.  “I believe you.  Do you need anything else besides the bullet?”

I smiled.  “No, but I’ll give you a few warnings for upcoming events.”  With that, I filled him in on his and Dicks’ future cases, and warned him about the upcoming Blackest Night, and how the Lantern Corps would need to unite in order to survive … and how the Black Lanterns would use personal connections to attack everyone, especially heroes.  Once that finished (and Dick _finally_ returned,) I was about to go when I remembered something else.  “Before I go, I do have a quick question: why didn’t you carry any kryptonite when you learned about Connor’s origin?  Didn’t you consider the possibility of mind control?”

Tim stared at me in shock, as if he never considered the possibility.  “I didn’t actually, because Cadmus said that they didn’t have the time to program Kon with any control phrases.  Besides, he was my best friend, I KNEW I could trust him with my life and had multiple times.”  Then he whispered, “I loved him.”

I smiled and told him “Then tell him when he comes back.  There’s a possibility that you will be pleasantly surprised.”  And with that, I left and returned to the portal.  Once on the other side, Dr Strange closed the portal, though he admitted it was with some difficulty.

* * *

One month later, and Dr Strange once again opened a portal to a different reality for Tony Summers, and this one was to DC’s Earth-16 home of the show _Young Justice_.  He had chosen that universe because it was the first DC universe to feature Superboy as one of the main characters, and there was a chance (however small) that he wasn’t Superman and Luthors’ son.  On top of that, he saw that Superboy was quite lonely, and hoped that he could become his friend, possibly even providing the push that Superman needed to take responsibility for the young hero.  Dr Strange tried one last time to talk Tony out of leaving, but after two hours of arguing saw that his student truly believed he had no chance at happiness in his future if he stayed, and so he opened the portal one last time.  Tony stepped through, never to be seen in that reality again.  However, when Strange attempted to close the portal, nothing happened.  “Well, _that’s_ going to be trouble,” he stated flatly.


	2. Joining Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Conversation code: "Regular text"-Speaking  
> "Italic Text"-Altered or Robotic speech  
> Italic Text-Telepathy

**Coast City-July 4, 2011-10:15 PDT**

 

I quickly changed my suit into casual civilian wear and pulled on a bomber jacket, tennis shoes and fedora that I’d packed in my bag.  First thing I had to do was figure out the time so I could know exactly what was going on.  I had just entered Star Square when to my surprise, a wall of ice formed halfway between me and City Hall.  I tried to think of an ice villain that attacked here, according to _Young Justice_ , but I realized that only the most famous ice villains had been shown, or even mentioned.  I quickly hid my bag and civvies and reactivated my costume.  I took off over the ice wall to find out who had been responsible.  The Justice Society’s Icicle, maybe?

  
 When I passed the wall, I froze in mid-air.  This guy could have almost passed for a relative of Captain Cold, but I _knew_ that Cold was in Central City being beaten by Wally West and Barry Allen, if that hadn’t happened already.  Besides, this guy had black where Cold had blue, and a visor like Cyclops instead of sunglasses and a hood.  And this guy was clearly a meta-human, creating the ice with his hands instead of a gun.  Then I recognized him.  Well, no wonder it had taken me a while, his girlfriend wasn’t there.  “Hey, Coldsnap!  Where’s Heatstroke?  I thought you two were partners.”  Coldsnap was a little-known mercenary that was usually a member of the Masters of Disaster, and had a bit of a grudge against Black Lightning.  But what was he doing here in Coast City?  As far as I knew, Jefferson Pierce hadn’t become Black Lightning yet, and neither of them had ever worked here, so why was he here?

  
 “I got hired for this job alone, kid.  Now beat it or I’ll put you on ice.”  I just laughed at that.  A number of people had said that to me before, including Bobby Drake and Magneto, but none had succeeded.  “By the way, who are you?  One of the Lantern’s sidekicks?  You kind of look like them.”

  
 “Yeah, something like that.  Now, you said something about ‘putting me on ice’?  Give it your best shot, Snap.”  Snap took that literally, as he created an extremely long spear that he threw at me.  I just barely managed to melt it before it hit me, but that was only the beginning.  I was starting to wish that I hadn’t told him to give me his best, this guy was far more dangerous than I’d thought he’d be from the comics.  But then considering he didn’t show up often, it _was_ hard to gauge his level of competence.  I managed to melt another spear and another smashed against the force field I usually erected around myself for protection.  “Alright, this has gone on long enough, Snap.  How’d you like to get cooked?”

  
 “HEY!  If I’m going to get cooked, it’s going to be by my girl, not some kid.”  He built up an ice wall around himself, but I just moved in and turned up the heat.  Within thirty seconds, the wall was gone, and Coldsnap was starting to sweat.  “You need to . . . cool . . . down . . . kid?  HEY!  Why . . . aren’t my . . . powers working?”  That was the last thing he said before he collapsed from the heat.  I looked around and realized that I had drawn a bit of a crowd, so I took off and then activated the invisibility so I could retrieve my bag and clothes.  But before I did, I noticed that the clock at City Hall said it was 10:30.  Ten thirty?  Great, that means that the other ice villains had all fallen more than an hour ago, there was only half an hour before Rob and the others visited the Hall of Justice and about six hours before they made the fateful entrance into Project Cadmus.  Great, there was no way that I’d make it there in time to join them to free Kon.  BUT I could still help with their escape . . .

 

**Hall of Justice-Washington DC-July 4, 2011-14:05**

  
 I heard Batman mention having a discussion about the coincidence of four ice villains attacking on the same day.  “ _Not four, but five Bats.  I just got a call from GL.  Apparently Coldsnap attempted to attack Coast City’s City Hall about half an hour ago_.”

 

 “So Lantern took care of him?”

  
_“No, some kid that he didn’t recognize did.  Strange thing is, the kid’s costume kind of looked like GL’s uniform, except it was blue, and there was no symbol on his chest.  Ever hear of him?”_

  
 “No, that’s something else we’ll have to discuss.”  He turned to the kids and said “We shouldn’t be long.”

  
 Roy wasn’t to happy about that.  “That’s it?  You promised us a real look inside, not a glorified backstage pass.”  AC reminded him that it was a first step, and Oliver said that he needed to be patient.  “What I need is _respect_.”  He was getting madder by the second.  He turned to the others and made his case to them.  “They’re treating us like kids, worse, like _sidekicks_!  We deserve better than this.”  The others didn’t understand what he was talking about, and Roy wasn’t happy about their reactions.  “You’re kidding, right?  You’re playing their game?  Why?  Because you think they play fair?  Today was supposed to be _the day_.  Step one in becoming full fledged members of the League.”

  
 Wally was a little confused.  “Well sure, but I thought step one was a tour of the HQ.”

  
 “Except that the Hall isn’t the League’s real HQ.”  All of us were shocked at that.  How the hell did Roy know that?  “I bet they never told you that it’s a false front for tourists and a pit-stop for catching zeta-beam teleporter tubes to the real thing: an orbiting satellite called the Watchtower.”  I smiled at that, even though I was still shocked that Roy knew so much.  The founding members of the League had named the satellite after the information hub that my wife, Chloe Anne Sullivan runs for me, and that I had let the League borrow on our first mission, the mission that had started the Justice League in the first place.

  
 Bruce and Wally glared at Oliver.  He had to be the one that told Roy about the Watchtower.  “I know, I know, but I thought maybe we could make an exception?”

  
  _“Just because you help fund the Watchtower doesn’t mean you can go blab about it to anyone you want, Arrow.”_ I turned to Roy.  _“As for you, you’re not convincing us that you are ready to be a full member of the League yet.  If you can’t keep that temper under control, it could prove to be a danger to everyone you work with.  Stand down son, or else . . .”_

  
 “Or else what?  You’ll send me to my room?  And I’m not your son, I’m not even _his_.  I thought I was his partner, but not anymore.”  He threw down his cap and stormed out of the Hall, but not before throwing one final parting shot at the other kids.  “Guess they’re right about you three, you’re _not_ ready.”

  
 I don’t know what would have happened then, if Superman hadn’t called in about an explosion at Project Cadmus.  Bruce and I had both had our suspicions about Cadmus, especially after Chloe failed to hack into it.  (That was extremely unusual because Chloe had been able to hack into everything before, including Checkmate, the NSA, CIA, DDS, and DHS when necessary.)  But before we could get ready to go to Cadmus, Giovanni ‘John’ Zatara warned us about the sorcerer Wotan attempting to blot out the sun with some amulet.  Great, a magician.  I _hate_ fighting magic users.  Batman decided that the investigation into Cadmus could wait, and told the kids to stay put.  Dick asked why and the other mentors said that this was a League mission.  Barry added in “You’re not trained . . .”  I’m sure he was going to go on, but Wally interrupted by asking since when had they not been trained.  “I meant that you’re not trained to work as part of this team.”  The demand that they stay out of the sun mission gave me an idea.  
 

When I stayed behind while the others went on to the teleporters, Bruce gave me a look.  _“I have something I need to do here, I’ll catch up later.”_ Bruce didn’t look too happy about it, but he let it go.  I turned to the computers, and laid my hand on them, commanding all the recording devices to shut down for twenty minutes.  _“Now that that’s taken care of, we can speak freely.  Listen, I’m on your side.  I’d like for you guys to join the League, but Flash is right, you guys aren’t ready to join us yet.”_   Dick was about to say something, but I cut him off and turned off my voice modulator so he’d know that I wanted him to trust me.  “Just hear me out Robin.  You guys are all great at your partnerships, I’m sure, but a partnership is very different from a team.  That is why I want you to do something for me.”

  
 They all looked shocked at that.  Kaldur asked “What can we do for you?”

  
 “You can investigate Project Cadmus for us.”  Now that really shocked them.  “Batman said that you couldn’t join us for the mission against Wotan, but he never said anything about not investigating Cadmus.”  I then gave Dick a secret sign I’d shown him four years before, when I’d wanted to talk to him without Bruce knowing.  I then signed _Lvl 52_ , I knew Dick would be able to figure out what I meant when they got there.  According to a source I had in Cadmus, there were some strange things going on inside Cadmus, including some secret project on Sublevel 52, something both Superman and I would be interested in.  I then reactivated the voice modulator and jumped to the teleporters.  After all, I didn’t know where Wotan was.  _“Recognized: Shade-08”_

 

**Just outside of Project Cadmus-Washington DC-July 5-00:35**

 

 I had _finally_ made it to Washington, and Cadmus was still standing, so I had made it in time.  I looked through the window, and saw Aqualad electrocuting Blockbuster, so I knew I had made it just in time.  The columns exploded thanks to Rob’s batarangs, and the entire building started to come down.  Just as the building was about to collapse on the four founding members of Young Justice, I threw a force field over them.  When the building finished collapsing, I pushed it off them, revealing the young heroes, and the effectiveness of my force field.  Their uniforms were still torn, but nowhere near as bad as they had been on the show.  The only costume that looked exactly the same was Kon’s, the tear matching the show perfectly.

  
 I watched as the members of the Justice League came down on Cadmus, all of whom I recognized: Superman, Captain Marvel, John Zatara, Red Tornado and Martian Manhunter were the first to arrive.  They were quickly followed by the others: Captain Atom, Hawkman, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, Hal Jordan.  And being lowered down by John Stewart were Black Canary, Green Arrow, Batman, Aquaman, and one other that I did _not_ recognize.  The other wore a costume much like the one Clark had used in Season 9 of Smallville, except he had a hood and the S-shield was blue.

 

**Ruins of Cadmus-00:39-Shade’s POV**

 

 I couldn’t believe it, I had just asked them to _investigate_ Cadmus, not bring it down!  Then I noticed that they had gained a fourth member, a young man in a white suit with a red symbol that was covered by a torn part of his shirt.  He looked surprisingly like a sixteen year old Jor-El or Clark.  Who was this kid?  Then he raised the shirt, revealing a red crest of the House of El.  This kid was a Kryptonian?  But how?  Bruce recognized the crest as well.  But who couldn’t?  Our family crest was probably _the_ most famous symbol in the world.  Then the boy revealed that he was Kal’s clone.  So, that’s what Dubbilex meant about Sublevel 52, they had been cloning Clark.  Everyone was shocked by this revelation, and I didn’t like the reactions I was seeing in my ESV.  Clark and Bruce were full of red-rage and yellow-fear.  I wasn’t too surprised about Bruce, but Clark?  Since when was he afraid of anything?  We had to talk about what had happened.

 

 A few minutes later, Bruce turned to the kids.  “Cadmus will be investigated, all 52 levels.  But let’s make one thing clear: end results aside, we are not happy.  You hacked Justice League systems, disobeyed direct orders, and endangered lives.”

  
  _“That’s not quite true, Batman.  I told them to go investigate Cadmus.  And even if I hadn’t, you just told them not to join us on the Wotan mission.  You never said anything about not investigating Cadmus.”_   Bruce gave me the infamous Bat-glare, but I gave him my own glare, one that usually caused criminals to start running their tongues about anything and everything.  Bruce eventually yielded, but he told the kids that they wouldn’t be doing anything like this again.

  
 Kaldur was the first to stand up to him, declaring that they would.  When Arthur told him to stand down, Kaldur defied even him.  “Apologies my King, but no.  We did good work here tonight, the work you trained us to do.  Together, on our own, we forged something powerful, important.”  Each of them stood up to Batman and their mentors in order to keep working together.  Robin said it best, when he said “Batman, we’re ready to use what you taught us.  Or why teach us at all?”

  
 Superboy finished it by giving Bruce an ultimatum.  “Why let them tell us what to do?  It’s simple: get on board, or get out of the way.”  When he said that, I decided to go with the better of the two choices, I would support them, even if the entire League was against them.  When faced with determination like that, it was better to just fold and let them do it on our terms, rather than stand up to them and let them get into situations that would require our involvement.  Bruce decided to think on it for three days and get back to them.  I hoped that he would make the right decision.  I was going to talk to him about this in two days and ensure that he did.  Otherwise, we’d probably have a full blown mutiny on our hands, and that was not something we needed right now.

 

**Mount Justice-Happy Harbor, Rhode Island-July 8, 2011-8:04**

 

 After the encounter at Cadmus, I laid low and managed to hack into government databases and create a new civilian identity, renaming myself Tony Peter Storm, getting rid of my last link to the father I hated.  Then I enrolled myself at Gotham Academy for school this year, in order to be closer to Dick.  I also found out that there were no comics featuring my world.  (Hey, I figured if DC was real, then why couldn’t my world be in a comic book in another universe?)  Finally, I visited Gotham and made a few deals with some of the more … stable criminals like Crane and Fries.  Three days after the destruction of Cadmus, I snuck into Mount Justice (with invisibility on) just as Batman was giving Young Justice their debriefing.  “This cave was the original secret sanctuary of the Justice League.  We’re calling it into service again.  Since you four are determined to stay together and fight the good fight, you’ll do it on League terms.  Red Tornado volunteered to live here and be your supervisor.  Black Canary’s in charge of training.  Shade and I will deploy you on missions.”  So, the stranger was called Shade, huh?  Well, I’d have to look him up, because I didn’t realize there was a hero called Shade.

  
 Then Batman mentioned that the _five_ of them would be their covert team, and introduced Miss Martian/M’gann M’orzz.  While they started talking, I decided to explore the place, and try to decide on a room.  Fortunately, they were all basically the same, so I didn’t have to worry about someone taking ‘my room.’  I heard Kon mention hearing somebody else, and I thought that I’d been discovered already.  Then I heard him say something about “putting this Joker down.”  Joker?  Oh, he can’t be serious, can he?  I couldn’t be that lucky so soon, could I?  I ran into the room, and I found Kon fighting himself, with a G-gnome watching.  Oh, so that’s it huh?  I decided to enter Kon’s mind to help him out, but only showing him my unmasked head.

  
 When I entered his mind, I saw a full-fledged battle going on between the League and Joker, with an army of green robot monkeys.  “Kon!  Kon, where are you?”

  
 “Who the hell is Kon?  And why am I seeing a floating head?  Batman, do you see what I see?”  Fortunately, Batman didn’t pay attention to the Clown Prince of Crime, and I was able to spot Kon afterwards.  Bruce’s cape had been in-between me and Kon.  
 “Kon, listen to me!  This is not real, it’s all in your head.  A telepath has gotten into your head and is making you play out this scenario.”

  
 “How would you know?  Who are you?  And why did you call me Kon?”

  
 “I’m a friend, and to me, you’ll always be Kon, no matter what happens in this universe.  And although I know how much you hate telepaths, I’m in your head too, but you can always trust me, Kon.  Try to think, are there any discrepancies between this world and the real world?”  That was all the hint that he required, as he quickly tested his theory by tossing AC near a zeta-beam teleporter, and the teleporter didn’t recognize him.  Kon then hit the ground with everything he had, and disrupted the G-gnome’s telepathy.

  
 “Now that he’s taken care of, I want some answers.  Who are you?  _What_ are you?  Why are you here?  And why can’t I see your body?”

  
 I laughed.  Already acting like a reporter, just like his dad.  Or at least one of his dads.  I left before I found out if Kon’s origins were the same in this world as in Earth-1, I really hoped not.  Hopefully one of the FanFiction writers was right about the identity of his other parent, preferably Jessesgirl1549.  “Alright, I’ll give you some answers.  My name is Tony, and I’m here because I want to join your team.  With any luck, I’ll be doing that in about ten days.  You can’t see my body because I’ve turned it invisible.  As to what I am, I’m _complicated_.  But know this, I shall always be your friend, and you can always trust me, no matter what.”  After that, I winked at him, and left.

 

**Happy Harbor-July 18, 2011-11:30**

 

 I’d found absolutely _nothing_ out about Shade over the next week, he was barely even mentioned in the newspapers except as a rumor!  I also made a quick visit to Smallville to pick something up.  And when I arrived at Mount Justice today, I decided to be nice to M’gann, so I saved her cookies.  Turns out, they were chocolate chip, I’d always wondered about that.  After saving her cookies from becoming inedible, I sneaked out and waited for Mr. Twister to make an appearance.  I thought it wouldn’t be too hard to find him, just look for the tornado.  Unfortunately I had forgotten one crucial detail: Mr. Twister first struck _inside a building_ , so I wasn’t able to find him until Kaldur shouted “We will not indulge you!  We will not engage!”  Then Twister started generating lightning, prompting Wally to doubt their guess that Twister was Red Tornado.

  
 I wasn’t about to let Twister hit them with the lightning, so I decided to distract him.  “Hey, Twister!  Why not try me out?” I yelled at him, then I threw two columns of flames at him, trying to damage some of his primary systems.  It worked, for a little while, until Twister turned on me and blew me away.  Then Kon and I attacked him from opposite directions, but Twister was prepared for that and shot us both back where we started.  He moved to finish us off, but I covered all six of us with my force field, moving so that we were close together.  _“Very well, stay behind your shield.  I won’t deny you children have power, but this does not help me achieve my objectives.  But if you confront me again, I will show no mercy!”_

  
 “That guy is not whelmed, not whelmed at all, eh Rob?” I said, deliberately quoting him from when they escaped the cloning facilities on Cadmus’ sublevel 42 thirteen days ago.

  
 It got the expected response.  “Who the hell are you?  And how did you know who I am?”

  
 “That is a very long story Rob, and hopefully one I’ll be able to tell all of you one day.  But first, let’s take care of Mister Twister, shall we?  Oh, and before we go, don’t blame M’gann for her mistake.  It was an honest, rookie mistake and I’m sure that she’ll make fewer after she gets some more experience.  Now, M’gann, contact Tornado and see if he’ll come.  The rest of us will try to at least slow him down.”  They all stared at me, obviously wondering why I put myself in charge of the team.  “If any of you have any other plans, please speak up.  Otherwise let’s get going.”

  
 When we returned to town, each of us tried to take down Twister, but to no avail.  He even managed to save himself from my flames by using his twisters to suck them up.  The best I could do was protect civilians and property from damage.  None of the others had any better luck, until M’gann came up with a plan.  Once she had explained her plan, Tornado showed up and admonished us for not being able to take care of Twister on our own.  _“Hit the showers, boys.  I was hoping you could handle this, clearly you cannot.”_   When Dick tried to argue the point, Tornado said _“The subject is not up for debate.”_   For a little while, it would seem that our plan wouldn’t need to be implemented, but as I had seen in the show, Twister managed to gain the upper hand, and I managed to shield ‘Tornado’ from the explosion.  _“Remain still, android.  The reprogramming won’t take long.”_

  
 Then, as planned, M’gann revealed herself and we each took our turns hitting Twister.  Wally blew him around and into Kon by creating a twister-as he had throughout the fight, Kon punched him, eventually sending him to Kaldur, who sent him flying out of the water.  M’gann grabbed him with her telekinesis, blasting his arms off, while Dick threw some batarangs into the chest.  And when he hit the ground, I turned on the heat, melting away the armor, until the chest opened up, revealing a ‘human’ operator.  M’gann then grabbed a boulder and dropped it on the operator, to everyone else’s shock.  Dick got after her, until she lifted the boulder, revealing a crushed android.  I allowed Wally to get his souvenir, and then torched the rest.  Then Dick turned to me and asked, “Well, now that that’s taken care of, what about you?”

  
 Young Justice all turned to me, and waited for a response.  “Well, I’m guessing you’re looking for the usual ‘Who are you and what do you want,’ right?”  They all nodded.  “Well, you can call me Torch, and I’m here to join up with you.  I want to join Young Justice.”

  
 Aqualad was the first to respond.  “That doesn’t tell us who you are.  How is it that we have never heard of you before today?  And how did you acquire your abilities?”

  
 Figures, they would ask about the two subjects I really didn’t want to talk about.  “My story is a little complicated, so I’m going to wait until we don’t have any pressing issues.  I will be sharing some information with only Rob and Superboy though..”

 “Huh?  Why are you willing to tell us but not the others?”

  
 “That’s simple, _RG_ , I trust you two above the others.  Kaldur, sorry but I don’t know enough about you to form an opinion yet.  As for M’gann and Wally, well, I don’t trust you two to keep your mouths shut.  M’gann is to naïve, and Wally is willing to do anything to impress a girl.”

  
 Rob was frozen in shock when he realized that I had said his initials.  Aqualad was the one to keep questioning me.  “How is it that you know our names when we’ve just met?  By the way, how old are you?”

  
 “Well, that’s a little . . . complicated.  Let’s just say that you guys are pretty famous where I come from.  Oh, and I’m fourteen.  So, what do you say, am I in?”

 

**Happy Harbor-July 18-19:45**

 

 I couldn’t believe it.  Someone else knew my identity?  But how did he find out?  I knew Bruce wouldn’t be very happy when . . . make that if he ever found out.  The next thing I heard was Torch asking if he was going to join the team.  I decided to ask what I thought was the obvious question.  “Why don’t you ask Batman or Shade?”

  
 “Because I know that you guys are willing to go up against the League and Batman if you think you should, otherwise you wouldn’t exist as a team.  Besides, I want to be on the team because _you_ think I should be on, not because the League thinks I should be on.  If you want, I’ll walk away so you can talk amongst yourselves and vote.  And one more thing, no matter what you decide, know this, I will always be your friend, and you can always trust me, no matter what.”  Oh, great, now what do I do?  Do I vote to let him in so I can keep an eye on him, or vote him out so he doesn’t get anymore information?

  
 “How did you know we went against the League to create this team?”

  
 “That’s simple, Kaldur.  I saw it a few months ago.”

  
 “A few months?  But we only went active two weeks ago.  Wait, are you from the future?”

  
 “That’s only part of my secret, Wally.  I promise, I will explain everything inside of a week, assuming you let me in.”  And with that, Torch walked off and left us to vote on whether or not to let him in.

  
 “I vote yes.  He has proved himself useful, and if he is from the future, he can provide valuable intelligence on future missions and enemies.”  I had to admit, Aqualad had some good points, but what was I to do?

  
 Unsurprisingly Wally and Megan both voted yes.  To my shock though, so did Superboy.  When I asked him why, he said “Because I trust him.”  I don’t know what it was, but something about his voice was different, closer to Clark’s than I’d ever heard before.  
 Whatever it was, I decided to trust Superboy.  And when Bruce asked me why, I could always tell him that I was keeping my friends close and my enemies closer, or at least that would be the excuse I gave him.  “Well then, I guess that it’s unanimous.”  We turned back to Torch, and I said “Welcome to the team, partner.”

 

**Mount Justice-Happy Harbor-July 18-21:17**

 

 I moved in that night, while the others briefed Red Tornado.  The one thing I didn’t unpack was the bag that held the most sensitive part of my belongings, the things I didn’t want _anyone_ to find, _especially_ not Mr. Bruce Wayne.  I then set my nanites to shutting down all the bugs and cameras in my room, while setting up my own.  Only when the nanites returned did I unpack that last bag.  And then I set up a security system that was worthy of Tony Stark, and encrypting it ten times over.  After that was set up, I pulled out the Smallville rock and broke off a small piece of it.  Taking the smaller piece, I put it in a lead-lined pocket of my belt, while I put the larger piece in a lead-lined drawer in my room.  Although I hated to have it, I had no choice if I wanted to protect Kon. I also pulled out the Radion bullet and one other thing I had brought from my Earth, a present for someone that I KNEW was here, and I knew well from my life back home.  I just hoped Dick understood why I had it, once I explained why I brought it.

 

**Manhattan alley-New York-July 18-23:45**

 

 An enormous black, clawed hand emerged from what appeared to be thin air.  But this hand was coming from another universe, one where it was infamous.  The hand on it’s own actually belonged to a man who was closing in on his fifties, but didn’t look over thirty, because of the being that was bonded to it, and it was because of that being that he was infamous.  Once the black symbiote was convinced that it could survive on the other world, he stepped through, disguised as a mere human.  Using his enhanced senses, including a sixth sense, he quickly determined that his arch-nemesis was nowhere near, despite the fact that he often patrolled the area.  In fact, he could not find a single sign of his nemesis.  _This is most unusual.  The Spider is always around here.  Why is he not here to face us?_

  
  _Who cares?_ the other half asked.   _We are free from him, and we can do whatever we want.  We can do what we need to do to survive, and he can not interfere again._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, Shade is an OC of mine that I created for my first big fanfic which I wrote and then decided I needed to redo before I ever found this site. He is an adopted nephew to Clark (his father visited Krypton and was adopted by Jor-El.) He's an orphan who lost his parents in the Smallville meteor shower that also brought Clark to Earth, and his body was saturated with clear Kryptonian crystals, much like those used to build the Fortress of Solitude. His abilities include teleportation to places he knows, shifting his skin from flesh to the same Kryptonian crystal at will (thus making him nearly invulnerable,) and electrokinesis to the point that if he wishes, he can control or manipulate minds even more subtly than Martians, though he can only do that to someone he has physical contact with. When I finally get back to Smallville, I WILL write his story as The Veritas Saga (a multi-part story.)


	3. Histories and a Leader

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before I start this chapter, a quick shout out to the author Peter David. It’s thanks to him that I was able to write the introduction to Tony’s history. It’s a direct quote from his novelization of Spider-Man, the first movie in the Tobey Maguire/Kirsten Dunst/Sam Raimi trilogy.

**Chapter Four: Histories and a Leader**

**Happy Harbor-July 20-20:15**

We were all camping out on the summit of Mount Justice thanks to an attempt by Wally to get closer to M'gann. Kon was a little disappointed at camping, he probably thought that it was a little boring. Wally told him, "If you feel like heading home I can sit out here with Ms. M . . . alone."

"Subtle Wally, real subtle. You're just trying to prove that you're a ladies man, and with one of your own teammates. For shame. What would Flash say if he heard about this?"

"Please, you're just jealous. I bet you'd be doing the same thing if I hadn't thought of it first."

I laughed at that. "Me and M'gann? Are you crazy, Wally? Don't answer that. Sorry, but the two of us would be as likely as Ba-" I almost said Batman and Joker, but I wouldn't speak of that thrice-damned dreg of a clown if I could help it, so I switched. "I mean, Aquaman and Black Manta."

"What's wrong? Don't you like me?" M'gann asked.

I laughed again. "You guys really don't know me at all, do you? Even if we did like each other romantically, we couldn't be together."

"Why not?"

"A simple demonstration should remind you, Kaldur." I stuck out my hand and created a ball of fire hovering an inch over my hand. "There's a reason that I call myself Torch, I can create and manipulate fire. And in case you forgot, fire is a Martian's Kryptonite, so no chance."

Dick interrupted our little impromptu discussion about romance with a suggestion. "You know, usually you sit around a campfire and tell stories." M'gann immediately suggested that Kaldur tell his origins story. "I was thinking more of a ghost story type of thing, but I guess . . . whatever." I smiled at that. Kaldur's story was one of only two of my current teammates' origins that I didn't know by heart.

Kaldur began, "Well, I grew up in the city of Shayeris, which is a city in Atlantis." I was startled by that name, as it was surprisingly close to Shayera, one of the names of Hawkgirl. "Surface dwellers think all Atlanteans are the same, but our kingdom has many cities, many people, many cultures. When I was twelve, I completed my education and began my mandatory service in the Atlantean military, which is standard for all at that age. After a while, I was transferred to the prestigious Conservatory of Sorcery in the Atlantean capital of Poseidonis." I glanced over at Wally. Sure enough he scoffed at the idea of learning magic. I smiled at the thought of the bet I had planned for our trip to the Tower of Fate. The only question remaining was what I would demand from Wally for winning the bet …

Kaldur continued "Queen Mera is the head mistress of the Conservatory and wife of King Orin, Aquaman. It was a very different time for me. It was difficult, as it would be for anyone at age fourteen I suppose, but also a time in my life where I met friends that I know will be with me for a lifetime. Then came a day, a _horrible_ day when Poseidonis was attacked by the Ocean Master. I can remember it vividly, as if it happened only yesterday.

"It was the day Aquaman nearly met his end. Aquaman and Ocean Master fought for what seemed like hours. When Aquaman and Ocean Master clashed, it seemed to shake to the very foundations of the city. Ocean Master had gained the upper hand and nearly defeated Aquaman. Correction. Aquaman _was_ defeated. Garth, a fellow student, and I intervened on the king's behalf. It was the only thing we could think of doing. The danger did not occur to us, the only thing that mattered to us at the time was that our king was in trouble. It may have been one of the most foolish things Garth and I had ever done, as we nearly met our own end. We had no hope of defeating him whatsoever, but the time we spent engaged in battle against the Ocean Master was time enough for our king to recover.

"That was all he needed as Aquaman finally triumphed over Ocean Master. He was able to drive him away from the city and save us all. Aquaman is a being of two worlds. On the surface world he fights for justice for all beings. Under the sea he is a leader to many. Both carry the weight of responsibilities, overwhelming responsibilities, only even the best of men can carry for so long. Even Aquaman cannot do both forever. Realizing that on the surface both Batman and Green Arrow had taken on apprentices that could one day take over their respective mantles, King Orin had been contemplating the same idea. With this in mind, he approached both Garth and myself with the possibility of becoming his protégés. I must admit the possibility intrigued me immediately. I had never been to the surface world, and I am the first to admit that I am a bit of an adventurer. Many is the day in class that I would dream of visiting distant oceans and possibly one day even the surface world. Both Garth and I seriously considered the king's offer. Garth ultimately chose to continue his studies with Queen Mera at the Conservatory of Sorcery. For me, however, the chance to visit the surface world was a dream come true, so at the age of fourteen, I became Aqualad. I miss my friends Garth, Tula, but the chance to work with my mentor and king was an opportunity I could not pass up. I like to think the work I am doing makes a difference."

Wally tried to impress them with his story, but I interrupted him. "Please, your origin isn't that impressive."

"Pssh, like you actually know it."

"I know just about _everyone's_ origin. Tell you what, I'll tell your origin and if I make a mistake, you can take over. Agreed?" Wally quickly agreed, probably doubting that I could actually do it correctly. The others also leaned forward, curious to see how well I did.

"In the 1930's, a young college student named Jay Garrick was doing an experiment with hard water when something went wrong and he woke up a week later with superspeed and became the first person to take up the identity of the Flash. Over the next three decades he worked as a member of the Justice Society of America, the predecessors to the modern Justice League. Flash was one of the handful of heroes that didn't bother with a secret identity, and as such developed quite the following. One of his fans, another young scientist named Barry Allen wanted to know _everything_ about his idol, including the accident. One day, Barry decided to recreate the accident that made Jay the Flash. Maybe it was a mistake to do it in the middle of a lightning storm, maybe it was fate, who knows. But the lightning bolt combined with the same accident gave Barry the same abilities, but with an extra boost of speed. Barry Allen was now the fastest man alive and the second man to take up the mantle of the Flash."

"Hold it!" Wally interrupted. I was actually little surprised that it took him this long. "How did you know that Barry Allen was the man underneath the mask?"

"That is a long story that I'll get to later tonight. Now, Barry met a girl named Iris West and married her. Turns out that Iris has a brother named Rudy who was already married and had a young son, who, of course, is none other than Wally here. One day Wally was visiting his Uncle Barry and accidentally discovered Barry's journals and discovered that his favorite uncle was also his idol, the second Flash. When Barry found out that Wally knew, he was naturally upset, and he was even more upset when Wally insisted that he become Barry's sidekick. Unfortunately, Barry was too late to stop Wally, because Barry had written down the notes about the experiment, and Wally duplicated it."

"The experiment worked?" Kaldur asked.

Wally grimaced. "Well, not at first actually."

"Nope. Like Jay, Wally also had to wait about a week before his speed kicked in, most of that time being spent in the hospital with Barry blaming himself. But when Wally revealed that he had superspeed, Barry reluctantly took Wally on as Kid Flash, so long as Wally agreed to follow Barry's instructions to the letter." I paused for a minute, then asked "Well? How'd I do, twip?" Wally just glared at me, and I knew that he would have to admit I did a good job.

M'gann turned to Dick and asked "Can you tell us about how you got started, Robin?"

Wally started laughing. "Are you _kidding_ me? Bats won't even let him tell you his real name! I mean, you'll probably get a better origin story out of Supey over here." Then he turned to glare at me. "Although, I bet that _Torch_ over there knows everything about Rob."

I smiled. "Of course I do, Wally. Rob's origin story has got to be one of _the most_ famous and well known origins out there. Everyone back home knows how Rob got started." Dick turned towards me, shock clearly showing on his face, his features clearly begging me not to tell them. "However, his story is an extremely personal one, a story that I think is better told by Rob himself or Bats. If it becomes necessary for a mission, I will tell it if they don't beat me to it." One of the most popular _Young Justice_ fanfics back home was how the team finds out Robin's name, usually the story had something to do with Anthony 'Boss' Zucco somehow getting on our radar.

"Well then, what about you? Who are you, and how did you start?" Kaldur asked.

I grimaced. Although I had prepared for this all week, I still didn't want to tell it. "Who am I? You sure you wanna know? The story of my life is not for the faint of heart. If somebody told you it was a happy little tale . . . if somebody told you I was just your average, ordinary guy, not a care in the world . . . somebody lied. Mine is a tale of pain and sorrow, longing and heartache, anger and betrayal. And that just covers my childhood." With that introduction, I started my history, starting with the origins of the multiverse, then that of the Fantastic Four, going into the Civil War, my own manipulated childhood, the murder of my uncle and how I discovered the truth about myself.

"When my powers finally kicked in, I thought I'd be able to find a measure of peace, something to take my mind off what _Mr. Fantastic_ was doing, but it didn't. Nothing helped, not even flying, and every flier I've talked to said that flying was usually the most peaceful thing they'd ever done."

"Didn't anything you do bring you peace on your world?" M'gann asked.

"Two things. One was my music, the one thing I'm glad that my father forced on me, and even then I defied him. He gave me a list of instruments to pick from, and I deliberately chose one that wasn't on the list: a violin. It took me a long time to learn, but I've come to love the sweet music that can only come from a good violin. I even made sure to bring my two best violins with me."

"And what was the other thing?"

"That's easy Rob, you." They all looked at me in shock, especially Dick. "This entire multiverse gave me peace. I devoured everything I could get my hands on about you guys. I own every comic, every book, every movie and every episode of every series that featured even one of you, no matter how badly the critics rated it. I became the ultimate authority on your multiverse. When I was reading or watching your adventures, it was like I became a part of it. And when I saw the show that is based on this universe, I knew what I had to do. I'm here to make sure that certain mistakes aren't made and that certain events don't happen at all. As to what those events are, that is going to remain a secret."

"Can you prove it? And when you're ready, can you show us what you want to prevent?"

"Easily Rob. This is actually the second universe that I visited based on you guys, and your counterpart didn't believe me. So this time, I came prepared. I've brought my entire library here. Every movie, TV show, book and comic is in my room, safely under lock and key, and I'm the key, so don't even try to hack in Rob. But do you see why you can trust me now? Ever since I learned to read, you've all been my heroes, Rob and Superboy especially, at least for this generation." _Even if you're not exactly the right Robin,_ I silently added. I far preferred Tim to Dick and couldn't wait for Tim to show up. "As for the events I want to prevent, well, I'm not actually sure they will occur here. The events I want to prevent all happened on Earths that my universe called Earth-0 or Earth-12. This is officially Earth-16, so who knows if things will be the same. But believe me, I want us to be prepared, just in case similar events take place."

**Caribbean Sea-Near Santa Prisca-July 22-20:08**

We were flying to the island of Santa Prisca to find out why the island had stopped shipping out the infamous steroid Venom. I was looking forward to this, I really wanted to see the Man who Broke the Bat, the infamous Bane. Aqualad left the ship just off the coast so he could shut down the heat and motion sensors, while the five of us left the ship inland, closer to the factory. Wally first tried to flirt with M'gann with the stealth tech, and then tried to convince Kon to use it. "Why should he, Wally? He's already dressed in dark clothes."

"Well, what about you? Your uniform is so bright that you'll stick out like a sore thumb."

I just smiled and sent my uniform a mental command, turning it from it's usual bright blue to a military-based jungle camo uniform. "The benefits of having a nanotech suit that responds to your thoughts. I can manipulate this to look like anything I want it to." We then dropped from the ship, and went scouting, quickly discovering two squads of men, but before we found anything else about them, Robin disappeared, and Wally ran off before I could stop him.

Wally slipped and fell in front of the two squads of men, causing them to stop firing at each other and start firing at him. Kon jumped in and attacked the largest man, a guy in mask that was mostly black, and white for the face. It was too late for us to continue in stealth mode with this group, so I reverted my costume back to it's usual form and started attacking the guys in the hooded robes with repulsor beams. Rob tried to get after us for not following his lead, but I told him off. "Look Rob, as much as I respect you, you need to remember something. We have not been a team for long, this is only our first official mission together. In your partnerships, the roles are clear and defined. But that isn't the case here. Until we've gotten used to working as a team, a leader needs to give clear directions."

"Oh, so now I've got to hold everyone's hand?"

"Did I say that? No, I just said that you need to give directions. Most of us are not telepaths, Rob. If you want to be the leader, then lead by telling us what you want us to do. And don't you even _think_ about bat-glaring me, I'm just trying to help you out."

"Bat-glare? What in the world is that? Oh, and does that mean that you're supporting me as leader?" Wally asked. That's when I noticed not only had the others beaten the squads, they'd also tied them up while Dick and I were talking.

"KF, do you know _the look_ that Bats gives when he's trying to scare someone? The look that's intense enough for even Superman to fold? _That_ is the Bat-glare. It's quite famous where I come from, and while I want to see how I'd do under it, the only person I've ever heard of that can do it to the degree of proficiency that Bats can, isn't active yet, and probably won't be for another four or five years. As for supporting you, not a snowball's chance in hell. Rob would be a far better choice in leader than you simply because he's a strategic thinker. But you, you act before you think, which is a far worse quality for a leader than one that assumes you know what he's thinking. In fact, I think your codename should be Impulse instead of Kid Flash, _that's_ how impulsive I think you are." I hoped Bart would forgive me for that.

We found out that the guys in hooded robes were actually members of the Cult of the Kobra, who had taken over the factory from the usual guys. The large guy offered to take us into the factory using his own secret entrance. M'gann attempted to read his mind to find the entrance but he started reciting _football_ /soccer scores in Spanish. We decided to trust him and let him lead us to the other entrance. There was something about him that seemed extremely familiar, so I asked him "Who are you?"

"Well, _chiquita_ , my name is Bane."

I guffawed at that. "You? You're Bane?" I started laughing uncontrollably. This guy was the infamous Bane, the Man Who Broke the Bat? He was at least a foot shorter than I'd been lead to expect from the other three times I'd seen him. I couldn't believe this guy was the infamous Bane!

"What is so funny, _chiquita_?"

"Nothing, Bane, nothing at all. I just expected someone with your . . . _reputation_ to be a lot taller. I thought you'd be at least seven foot, not six foot six."

"Thank you, _chiquita_. It's good to know that my reputation has spread so far, and to know that you believed me to be so large." Bane then moved the stone away from the entrance and led us into the factory. When Rob and Impulse (as I was starting to think of KF as) disappeared without warning, Bane turned to us and said "Great chain of command."

"It's our first official mission, and we don't exactly have a designated leader, so what do you expect?" As we watched, Kon mentioned that they were only taking the Kobra Venom out to the buyer, not even touching the Bane Venom. M'gann suggested (rather naively) that freshness was important. "No, Kobra's doing something different to Venom since they took over. If only I could remember what they did." Then Kon mentioned a helicopter coming. I used the nanites on my mask to allow me to hear further, and sure enough, Sportsmaster was almost here.

When Aqualad found out about Sportsmaster, he insisted we needed a plan, and Bane launched himself at the cultists. Unfortunately it drew the attention of Mammoth and he jumped back inside through the window, right on top of me! When we hit the ground, I panicked and accidentally gave him a dose of the gas I kept in my suit near the wrists. To my surprise, Mammoth reacted fairly violently to the gas. As I backed away from him, I stared in shock, this wasn't a side-effect of the gas! Actually, it didn't _have_ side-effects, so why was he . . . shrinking? What the hell was going on with him?

Then I realized that I wasn't the only one staring at Mammoth. Kobra, Sportsmaster, Shimmer, and everyone else was also staring at Mammoth's strange reaction to my Gotham gas. Taking advantage of the distraction, I threw a few shruiken at the cultists while Kon took on Mammoth. Unfortunately, while I took down a number of cultists, our attacks also served to wake them from their shock. Kaldur had M'gann link us up telepathically and then ordered us to retreat back to the tunnel. _What? But we're winning! Mammoth is down for the count and the cultists are dropping like flies!_ I wasn't the only one wanting to stay, as Robin claimed he was busy elsewhere.

 _Robin, Torch, NOW!_ Kaldur ordered. Both of us reluctantly retreated back to the tunnel where we unanimously voted Kaldur the leader of Young Justice. Or at least, leader until Dick could take over. "Well then, before we go any further, I think we all have a question we need answered. Torch, what was that gas that you used on Mammoth?" They all turned, waiting for my answer.

I cringed at their looks. I _really_ didn't want to tell them the truth about the gas, especially considering how Dick would probably react to finding out what it was. So I decided to delay the inevitable. "Is this really the best time to ask that? Right now, we need to stop that shipment. If you still want to know what the gas was afterwards ... then I'll tell you on our way back. Deal?" They all reluctantly agreed. Fortunately Dick had already managed to delay Sportsmaster by sabotaging the engine of the helicopter, so now all we needed was to stop that chopper from leaving, permanently. When we went to leave the tunnel, Bane turned on us, just as I knew he would. And as in the show, Impulse stole the detonator and Kon knocked him out.

By the time we returned to the factory, Mammoth was nowhere to be seen, and he had been replaced by a kid about the size and build of Kon. He looked a little like the guy I kind of remembered Mammoth was before the Kobra Venom, but far more muscled. _So, the S-Gas only neutralizes the Blockbuster formula? Well, it's better than nothing,_ I thought. Kon quickly managed to take the boy out, while I turned to the cultists, throwing a few smoke grenades to hide myself while taking out a dozen of the cultists. Dick took on Kobra himself, but was unable to best him. "Hey, Kobra! Why so eager to sell the stuff when you know that the effect can be cancelled?"

He turned to me, just as I unleashed the gas on him. But unlike the gas I had unleashed on Mammoth, this version was one I'd mixed up myself, and far less virulent, more like a hallucinogen than what it truly was.

"What was that . . . supposed to do? What have you done? What was that gas?"

"That is a low concentration of the gas that turned Mammoth back into a mere mortal, Snaky. If you want to know what's in it, I suggest you go to the Himalayas and ask around about a little blue flower." With that, Dick and I charged him, and using all of our martial arts abilities, brought Kobra down. By now, Sportsmaster had taken off on the chopper, and Kon was just about to blow it. As planned, the chopper crashed into the factory, utterly destroying it. Unfortunately, the explosion distracted me and Dick, allowing Kobra to escape into the jungle, where he could overcome the effects of the gas in peace.

**Painted Desert, Arizona-July 23-00:45**

From empty space, a large grey-green, clawed foot stepped onto the desert floor. In five seconds it was followed by the rest of the body, the entire creature, though man-shaped, was easily three times larger than even the largest body-builder. The creature could only be called by it's name in it's home: an Abomination. You could clearly see its bones, as several of them jutted out of the skin. Later observers would say that it almost appeared to be Doomsday on steroids, they were so similar. The only differences were that Abomination's face was clear of any bones and hair, and that the Abomination's spine jutted out of his back. The former decorated soldier, Emil Blonsky, glad to have escaped his nemesis' rage for now retreated to some caves he knew were nearby to heal, then he would hunt his foe again.

**Atlantic Ocean-Over Cape Hatteras, North Carolina-July 23-02:13**

Half an hour after leaving Santa Prisca, Kaldur finally asked Torch the question that had been bugging me for hours. "What was that gas you used?"

It was obvious he hadn't been looking forward to this conversation. "Alright, I'll tell you. But first, you guys have got to promise not to freak out over my answer. Especially you, Rob." Huh? Why would I freak out over the gas? Once he had our promise, he explained. "Three days before I joined you guys against Mister Twister, I went to Gotham." I gasped in shock at that. He had been in Gotham without me or Bruce knowing it? "There, I made a deal with a psychopath in order to get some of his infamous gas. Something that I'm sure Rob has an antidote for in his belt somewhere."

There was only one guy that I thought it could be, and I couldn't believe that one of my _partners_ would _dare_ go to him. " _Smilex?_ You made a deal with _Joker_ for some of his gas?"

His eyes flared up with blue flame, something I'd never seen him do. " _ **DO NOT**_ _ **EVER**_ _suggest that I am working with_ _ **HIM**_ _ **!**_ _ **UNDERSTAND**_ _ **?**_ " With every word he spoke, the flames in his eyes flashed larger, and by the end of his little rant, his entire head was engulfed in flames. Why did mentioning the Joker cause that? Fortunately he quickly calmed down and apologized. "Sorry, but the thrice-damned Clown Prince of Crime is a _very_ sensitive subject for me. He is the main cause of most of the things I want to prevent. And as you can tell, I am _**not**_ using Joker gas. Try again, Rob."

Well then, that left only one gas that he could get in Gotham, and only Gotham. "Fear gas. You bought _fear gas_ off of Scarecrow."

"Yeah. Although I have superhuman abilities, I like to do as much as I can without them. The only ability I don't mind using is flight. Everything else I try to use as little as possible. I prefer to rely on my skills as a martial artist and my bag of tricks. Like I said before, Robin was my number two hero, second only to the first GL. I mean, the first GL of the Corps." Huh, a kindred spirit, just one with abilities. I wonder if Bruce would mind having him in Gotham on occasion? "Anyway, I've been working on the fear gas myself. I figured that it would be a useful tool to have, so long as it's in small enough doses." Then he whispered something that I think was meant for me and Superboy alone. "I am working on making it stronger, but only for two _special_ cases." Okay, why would he be working on making a _stronger_ dose, when Scarecrow's regular dosage can kill? And do I tell Bruce, or keep it a secret? What do I do, betray a friend, or wait to find out who his targets are and why?


	4. AI's, Arrows and An Old Friend

**Mount Justice-August 3-12:45**

It was twelve days before I saw or spoke to Dick again. I walked into the main room of the base, and Dick was waiting for me. "We need to talk, Storm." I nodded, and lead him to my room. This was our first chance to talk since the mission to Santa Prisca, and I still didn't know if he'd heard what I'd said about the fear gas. Once we were in my room, he asked me straight out, "Alright, I haven't told Batman about your gas, but I need to know something. Who are you using on it and why?"

"Dick," I ignored his shock at the casual use of his name and continued. "The main reason I have it is because of one man that should die, but the justice system will _never_ give him the death sentence, no matter how many graveyards he fills. _He_ is the only reason I'm making it stronger, and that's because the concentration that Scarecrow uses doesn't work on him."

"A name, Storm, give me a _damned name_."

I hissed out the answer. " _Joker_ , who else? But his dose is not only strong enough to work on him, but also infused with something so that justice will be done. I'll use the usual strength on occasion, but it's just another weapon. The concentration I use is simply a hallucinogen, designed to show a person their worst fear. Fortunately, it wears off about an hour after the initial exposure."

"Alright, but why? Why do you think Joker needs to die?"

I took a deep breath and explained. "Remember when I talked about different realities? In one version of this Earth, Joker did his best to destroy Commissioner Gordon, and one of the ways was shooting his daughter, Barbara in the back, crippling her. Then he beat one of your successors as Robin with a crowbar before blowing him up. In another version, he's the one responsible for making District Attorney Harvey Dent into Two-Face. And in a third, he kidnapped another of your successors and . . . tortured him until he was . . . until he was a Joker Jr . . . he never fully recovered from that. Then, forty years after . . . after that . . . he started . . . started taking control of his body . . . allowing Joker to terrorize Gotham _decades_ after he died." I had started crying as I told Dick the terrible fate of Earth-12's Tim Drake.

Dick just stared in shock. "How . . . how did he do it?"

"Cadmus tech. One of the heads of Cadmus in that reality was truly impressed by Batman and believed that Gotham would always need a Batman. In order to make sure that Gotham always had a Bat, she created different contingency plans to replace him and Joker stole one of those and corrupted it." I growled out the last part.

"Cadmus?"

"The Cadmus of Earth-12 was quite different from this reality's Cadmus. That Cadmus was born as the government's response to the Justice League. Basically, it was there to keep the League in check, just in case the League went rogue. Later, it became the government's liaison with the League. Getting back to why I want to kill Joker, in a third reality, he utterly _destroyed_ anyone connected to the Batman. He killed or was responsible for the deaths of Canary, Green Arrow, Hawk, Question and Huntress, demolished Buckingham Palace, and tortured _two_ of your successors, including a version of the one he got on Earth-12 until they were both Jokers. Then in another, he was responsible for the destruction of Metropolis and the Justice League. I won't rest until he's been utterly and completely _destroyed_. I don't care what Batman thinks or says, that clown is _dead._ " I could tell Dick was still in shock, so I said "If you want, I can show you the proof I have, but let's wait until later. If I remember correctly, we have some training and a mission coming up soon."

As it was, I _did_ remember correctly, as Black Canary and J'onn came through the Zeta Tube just as we came back into the main hall. Kon was quite upset when he heard J'onn talking to M'gann and asking how she was, so I went up and comforted him. "Hey, don't worry. It will just take some time and Superman will come around. Besides, until then, you've always got us."

Dinah then stepped into what I guessed to be our official sparring ring and started her lecture. "I consider it an honour to be your teacher. I'll throw a lot at you: everything I've learned from my own mentors," here she pulled off her jacket, revealing a bandage just above her left elbow, wincing as she did so. "And my own bruises." When M'gann asked what happened, Dinah's only response was "The job. Now, combat is about controlling conflict, putting the battle on your terms. You should always be acting, never _re_ acting. I'll need a sparring partner." Wally immediately volunteered and quickly got served, with Canary claiming he lost because "He allowed me to dictate the terms."

"Really? Then let's test that, Canary," I called out. "My own fighting style is exactly the opposite of yours, react and defend yourself until the opportune moment. But first, let's make this fair. Computer, activate disabling mode. Authorization Code: Stamford-7-13-06-CN-8-25-SHIELD-Register, activate." The nanites quickly stabbed me in the neck, and I fell to the ground as an excruciating pain filled my body as my abilities were neutralized.

"Tony! Are you alright?"

"Yeah, Superboy, I'm okay. Slag it, I never knew it would be that painful." I then focused on the nanites, forcing them into a small cube in my hand, leaving me in only my workout pants. Once that was done, I tossed the cube into Kon's hand saying "Take care of that for me, would you?" before turning to Canary and giving her a hand signal that clearly said _Bring it on_. Several punches were quickly blocked, and then I jumped as she attempted to sweep my legs out, exposing her wound, which I quickly took advantage of by jumping and hitting her on her bandaged arm. When I landed, she was favouring her arm even more. She stared at me in shock, surprised that I would take advantage of the wound. "We did agree on 'no holds barred,' didn't we, Dinah?" My use of her first name shocked her even more, allowing me to get in another strike at her arm and stomach, winding her. When she went to grip her stomach, I brought my elbow sharply down on her back, making her fall to the ground, and the computer announced Black Canary: Fail. "Like I said, defend until you see an opening, then strike. That is the premise behind Soresu fighting."

Kon then challenged Black Canary, claiming that his strength always put the fight on his terms. "And what about those who are stronger than you, Supes, like Mammoth or Blockbuster? Or those who use Kryptonite? Then what?" I asked. Dinah also challenged him by fighting him, but he quickly lost. When he got back up, I advised him "Remember, the greatest weapon in anyone's arsenal is not their strength, speed, or weapons, but their mind. Someone who relies on any of those can be beaten easily by someone who can out _think_ them. Learn to outthink your opponents, and you'll win every time."

Kon was so furious that I'm sure he was about to leave when Batman called. "Five hours ago, a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary. The attacker was capable of studying, then duplicating the powers and abilities of its attackers." Amazo, Ivo's android superhero killer. That was the only thing it could possibly be. "Arrow called in reinforcements, which nearly proved to be disastrous as our foe gained more and more power with each new combatant. In the end, it took eight Leaguers four hours to defeat and dismantle the android." Dick immediately asked who made it, starting with T O Morrow, the maker of Red Tornado, and suspected builder of Mr Twister. "Good guess, Robin, but Red Tornado doesn't think so."

"The technology bears the signature of Professor Ivo," J'onn said.

"Ivo? But Ivo's dead."

"Are you sure, Kaldur?" I asked. "One of the first things we learned back home was that unless you found a body, then the guy was still alive, and even then you _still_ kept an eye out for him."

Batman continued with our mission assignment. "To make certain this threat is permanently neutralized, we're sending two trucks carrying the android's parts to two separate STAR Lab facilities in Boston and New York for immediate evaluation. Every precaution is being taken. We'll have four decoy trucks to create confusion in case Ivo, or anyone tries to take the remains. You will split into undercover teams to safeguard the two real trucks."

I was glad that I had disabled my abilities before my fight with Canary now, as I knew it wouldn't be safe fighting Amazo with them, nor would it be safe fighting him with my normal uniform, so as soon as I recovered it, I immediately changed to a safer one. Fortunately, it would also be useful considering our means of transportation: motorcycles. "Activate uniform JT-R-Red-2-Hood-E0." My usual blue and black uniform changed to a pair of leather jeans, white shirt, and a tough leather jacket, with plenty of toys inside. And protecting my head was a classic black Robin mask, and a featureless, red full-face metal-framed leather mask, with only a pair of slit holes for my eyes. As _he_ said, it made me look like a guy with a motorcycle fetish. Still, better than a flashy maitre de. "Perfect. Whoa!" I wasn't prepared for one change that the mask made: I now sounded exactly like the original owner of this suit, Jason Todd as voiced by Jensen Ackles. "Well, this is interesting."

**Litchfield County-August 3-20:08**

We quickly split into two teams: M'gann, Wally and Kaldur going to Boston, while Kon, Dick and I headed for Manhattan. Dick tried to take Kon's mind off things by coming up with a new definition for aster. Instead of talking about the flower, now it was the opposite of disaster. But Kon didn't respond. "Clearly you're not feeling the aster. What's wrong?"

"Canary. I mean, what business does she have teaching combat skills to a guy with super-strength?"

"Taking down stronger guys is part of the gig. Canary learned that the hard way. Same with Batman, and well, me."

"Yeah, besides, there's always someone stronger than you, Supes," I added in, ignoring their stares at my changed voice. "Sometimes you have to deal with people who are more powerful than even you, or someone who is just as powerful. Remember Blockbuster and Mammoth? Matching strength against strength doesn't always work; you need combat skills as well. Even Superman can't beat everyone through strength alone." Kon just shrugged his shoulders and sped up.

Not long after that, our truck was attacked by robot monkeys. Instantly my mask gained a Heads-Up Display as I pulled out one of the guns and started shooting them. "Torch, watch it! You could kill someone with that!"

"No worries, Rob. Supes is invulnerable and I can't miss. So long as you get the ones on the back, we'll be fine. I'm targeting the ones in the air and on the sides," I told him as I shot monkey after monkey with the machine pistol. Unfortunately, even with them, the monkeys still stole the Amazo pieces. Before they got too far though, I quickly tossed a tracer onto the box, while Kon chased them down the old-fashioned way.

_Aqualad to Robin, we lost our cargo. Did you-?_

"It's gone, and so is Superboy."

_Aqualad to Superboy, radio your position, we'll help you._

_**I don't need help. Don't want any!** _

_Superboy?_

"I think he ditched his comm."

**Super, now we can't even track** _**him** _ **.**

_~He's out of my telepathic range. This Professor Ivo, if he is alive, seems to be two steps ahead of us. Maybe we should contact Red Tornado?~_

_Tornado always tells us to take handle things ourselves. And the mission can still succeed if we recover the parts before they are reassembled._

**Well that's a great plan, except for the part about us not knowing where to look!**

_"No need to worry about that, Impulse. I put a tracker on our case so we can follow them."_ I threw in.

"But that doesn't solve everything. We'd have heard by now if the decoy trucks had been attacked. So how did these monkeys know exactly which trucks to target? Ha! The parts have GPS. The monkeys can track the signal, which means I can track them using the one I hacked into. Looks like both parts are converging on . . . Gotham City."

_That far south? M'gann and I won't get there any time soon. I'm sending Kid on ahead to meet you. Aqualad out._

"Definitely a disaster, heavy on the 'dis.'"

"You can say that again, Dick," I said as we reboarded our bikes and headed down towards Gotham.

**Gotham City-August 3-21:30**

We met up with Impulse after Dick changed into his official uniform. Apparently Wally had the same idea as he "felt naked in civvies. Still tracking the parts?"

"They were heading through Gotham, but they veered. Wait, dude, they're at my school!" We caught up to Kon and Amazo about twenty minutes later inside the gym of Gotham Academy, where Kon was getting his arse handed to him by the android. Remembering the advice from _Under the Red Hood_ , I quickly threw a pair of batarangs at his legs. Once the smoke from the explosion cleared away, I noticed that it had worked perfectly as the leg was stripped down to the metal skeleton. Now it couldn't use Flash's superspeed or Superman's strength (via a small earthquake) against us, not without losing it's legs. In the meantime, Impulse had pulled Kon out of the fight, just barely escaping the twin explosions. Dick threw a batarang at Amazo's head, but he activated J'onn's density shifting, allowing it to pass right through. "Torch, what's the plan?"

"Amazo has the same weaknesses as a human being. Flight gyros in the inner ear, CPU under the brain pan, other sensitive parts replacing the guts," I called out while shooting at the android. Unfortunately Amazo shot back using Captain Atom's radiation beams. Impulse tried hitting him from behind, but the android hit the ground with Dinah's Canary Cry. Kon went at him just as the 'bot activated Superman's strength. Then Dick threw a few more batarangs while I charged at him with a pair of knives. Amazo defended himself against the batarangs, while I managed to hit the flight gyros. It threw me off just before it grabbed Impulse and started crushing him. Just before Wally's back and ribs would have been broken, an arrow appeared, forcing Amazo to use the Manhunter's intangibility, while saving KF at the same time.

Amazo attacked again, throwing Kon into the bleachers with Dinah's martial arts skills, while nearly killing Rob with lasers obviously based on Superman's heat vision. Then something happened, causing Kon to switch his assault from Amazo to Ivo himself. Kon continued the attack, while Dick and Wally followed up. Me on the other hand, I decided to do something else. While my team-mates distracted Amazo by attacking Ivo, I took off my mask and rushed Amazo, quickly closing it on his head. Before the bot could do anything about it, I pulled out the detonator and blew the mask, which took the head with it. The body immediately fell, oil gushing out from what would have been the throat. "Help me disassemble him, now!" Dick called out.

"Don't worry, Rob. Amazo is no threat without his head, trust me. The CPU was there, and without the CPU, no computer can do anything."

Just then, Aqualad and M'gann showed up, with M'gann quickly going to Kon and asking if he was alright. "Fine, feeling the aster."

"I think we all are, Supes," I said, just before Wally noticed that Ivo had disappeared.

**Mount Justice-August 4-01:06-Shade's POV**

This time, I decided to do the debrief while Bruce and Clark had a _very_ long talk concerning Superboy. Really, what was Clark's problem with the boy? Ollie used to call him the world's biggest boy scout, but he sure wasn't acting like it now. As the briefing ended, Kaldur said "The Amazo android is in pieces again, safely being analyzed at the two separate STAR Labs. But Ivo escaped, and as he originated the tech, he is arguably more dangerous than the android."

"Capturing the professor will be a League priority," Dinah responded.

_"Yes, my wife is already searching for him at our Watchtower. But from what we heard, your mission encountered other . . . complications."_ I looked pointedly at Superboy. _"Complications come with the job, but your ability to handle them has impressed the League."_

"The _whole_ League?"

I smiled at Superboy. _"Given time, yes. As we both know, Kryptonians have extremely hard skin, let alone skulls."_ Superboy chuckled at that. _"Of course, there's no shame in asking for help, even if we'd prefer that you handle things on your own. That's why the League exists, so we can help each other solve our problems. Even as powerful as we are, there are problems that we can't solve on our own."_

Dick surprised me then by being sarcastic. "Please, if we needed help, we'd never get the chance to ask." He then pulled out a green arrow from underneath his cape. "Look familiar? You were following us! Babysitting! You still don't trust us!"

I stared at the arrow, confused by the accusation.  _"But_ _Rob, we didn't follow you."_ Ollie pulled out one of his arrows, which clearly had a different head to the one they found.

"And that's not your arrow. But that means-"

"Speedy!"

"He has our backs."

I immediately found a problem with that idea, admirable though it was. _"I'm sorry, but I don't think so. Roy has always armed himself with red arrows, not green. Someone else was following you."_ Although, we would _definitely_ be looking into this Gothamite archer.

**Siberian Wilderness-Russia-August 7-14:37**

The man appeared in the middle of the Siberian wilderness from nowhere. No tech could make someone appear out of nowhere without a trace, yet this man did. He looked around confused, and glad that the chest piece that powered his light-whips also produced enough heat to keep him warm even on a cold, Siberian night. He would make his way to the nearest village, and then back to America, so he could destroy the man who stole his father's legacy.

**Mount Justice-August 8-16:58**

It was a beautiful summer day in Rhode Island, but only most of Young Justice was enjoying it. Wally had to start school that day in Central City, while I was taking the day to do some work, work that Batman would most definitely _not_ approve of.  I was hunting the League of Shadows, and more specifically Talia al Ghul, the daughter of the infamous Ra's al Ghul. Soon I was going to commit one of the three executions that I had decided on before I even left home, and with this one, I would prevent the birth of Damian Wayne, the most irritable Robin in the history of the Bat family. But first, I needed to _find_ the League of Shadows, and I was starting in the one place I knew they had lived: the Himalaya mountains of Tibet.

After finally hacking into a pair of Queen Industries and Wayne Enterprises satellites, I finally found their lair, and quickly noted it's location. When I headed out to the main room, Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen were waiting in costume with Red Tornado and the newly recruited Artemis Crock, who I suspected of being a spy for her father. "What were you doing?" Wayne asked.

Well, time to test out my resistance to the infamous glare. "Working on a report. I applied to go to Gotham Academy once school starts, and they asked me for a report on the Arkham family. You wouldn't happen to have any information on them, would you Bats?"

There was the glare. "We detected a hack into two satellites originating from here. As you were the only one inside today, it must have been you. Why did you hack them?"

"So I could take a close-up look at the Arkham family's most famous or infamous legacy, Arkham Asylum, why?"

"How did you do it?"

"Well now, that's for me to know and you to find out now, isn't it?" Truth was, I used my knowledge of their identities against them-I guessed their passwords: Thomas Wayne and Robert Queen, their fathers. But I had passed the test, if only barely: I had stood up to the Bat-glare.  Good God, no wonder he used it for interrogation!

By now the rest of the team had shown up and gotten dressed. "Interrogating allies now, B? If you've got a mission for us, I'd really appreciate it if you could get to the briefing and keep my team-mates away from your interrogation methods."

"Thanks, Rob, but I'm fine. Not like I've got much to hide anyway," I said with a smile, glad that we had managed to keep our friendship after the fear gas revelation.

I would have gone on, but Wally came in through the teleporter, ready for an evening of relaxation. Artemis immediately joked about his entrance, asking his abilities. "Uh, who is this?"

"Artemis, your new team-mate."

"Kid Flash, never heard of you."

"She's my new protégé," Ollie explained.

"Well, what happened to your old one?"

As if in response to his question, the teleporter activated, announcing _Recognized: Speedy, B06_. "Well, for starters, he doesn't go by 'Speedy' anymore. Call me Red Arrow." I stared at him, his costume was _completely_ different from any I had seen in the comics, yet it somehow suited him.

"Roy, you look-"

"Replaceable."

"It's not like that, you told me you were going solo."

"So why waste time finding a sub? Can she even use that bow?"

"Yes, _she_ can," Artemis responded. Well, I certainly believed her, as Sportsmaster would have made certain she could use that and other weapons from an early age.

"Who are you?" Wally asked again. Ollie and Artemis answered that she was his niece.

"Huh, I never knew you had any relatives, Arrow," I jutted in.

Ollie just glared at me, while Kaldur said "But she is not your replacement. We have always wanted you on the team, and we have no quota on archers." Wally then implicated that they'd choose him over her every time. He was probably right. As dangerous and rash as I knew him to be, I'd still prefer him over Tigress, _any_ Tigress.

"Whatever, Baywatch. I'm here to stay."

Aqualad ignored the argument and turned to Roy. "You came to us for a reason."

"Yeah, a reason named Dr Serling Roquette." Dick immediately identified her as an expert in nanorobotics and claytronics from Star City that had vanished two weeks ago. " _Abducted_ two weeks ago, by the League of Shadows," Roy corrected.

"Wait a minute, you actually want us to go up against the _Shadows?_ " I asked. What a great opportunity! Save Dr Roquette _and_ eliminate Talia al Ghul at the same time!

"I already rescued her." _Damn_ , I had forgotten about that. "Only one problem. The Shadows had already coerced her into creating a weapon. Doc calls it the Fog, comprised of millions of microscopic robots. Nanotech infiltrators. Capable of disintegrating anything in their path. Concrete, steel, flesh, bone. But it's true purpose isn't mere destruction. It's theft. The infiltrators eat and store raw data from any computer system and deliver the stolen intel to the Shadows, providing them with access to weapons, strategic defence, cutting-edge science and tech."

Here, Artemis cut in, saying "Perfect for extortion, manipulation, power broking. Yeah, sounds like the Shadows." I had to wonder about her knowledge. As far as I knew, Sportsmaster didn't work with the al Ghul's.

Wally scoffed at that. "Yeah, like you know anything about the Shadows. _WHO ARE YOU?"_

"Roquette's working on a virus to render the Fog inert," Roy continued.

Dick immediately realized the implications of that. "But if the Shadows know she can do that-"

"They'll target her. Right now, she's off the grid. I stashed her at the local high school's computer lab." Ollie seemed shocked that he left Roquette alone. "She's safe enough for now." Ollie then suggested that they work together to keep her safe. "You and I? Don't you want to take your new protégé?"

Ollie was about to continue, but Batman stopped him. "You brought this to the Team. It's their mission, which means it's hers now too." Roy was upset at that and left, but not before updating the computer with his new codename.

We were about to leave for the school when Batman pulled me aside and said "I have a different mission for you." I turned to him in confusion. What kind of mission would he be sending me on? "Starting about three weeks ago, a serial killer showed up in Manhattan, but this one has already killed ten people."

"In other words, he's more prolific than most serial killers," I said. I distinctly remembered that most human serial killers usually took a few months break before killing again. Only Jack the Ripper came even close to killing this many in such a short time.

"Yes. The NYPD hasn't found a trace of the killer yet and they've called for assistance."

"Why us?"

"Because the bodies that they've found are all skeletons."

"Skeletons? Couldn't they be finding old bodies?"

"No. The skeletons are all fresh, and picked clean of anything even remotely resembling flesh, including the marrow. I want you to go and reconnoiter. This is a _reconnaissance_ mission only. _Do not_ engage the target _no matter what._ Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir." I immediately left for the Zeta-Tube so I could get to New York. _Recognized: Torch, B07_

**Manhattan, New York-August 8-17:45**

The first place I went when I arrived was the nearest NYPD headquarters so I could look at the crime scene photos. Oddly, they looked vaguely familiar, almost as if I had seen something like that before. I had just gone over the last one when my liaison, Detective Seymour Simmons burst in and said "Hey, kid! We've found another victim! It's just outside the Javits Center!"

"Where's that?"

"11th Ave and West 36th." Hell's Kitchen, one of the few places that Spider-Man had never patrolled back on my birth-world. The home territory of Matt 'Daredevil' Murdock, the blind lawyer/vigilante. I immediately followed the cop out to the Javits Center. That was where he found it: a spot of black ooze that most would never take a second glance at. "Hey, kid? Does this mean anything to you."

"Slag it! Don't touch it, detective!" Luckily Simmons pulled back before he could touch the ooze. "Don't let _anybody_ touch that! Get that into some kind of waterproof container. I need to take it to STAR Labs." _Please_ don't let this be what I think it is! "Has this been found at any of the other crime scenes?"

"No, I don't think so. Or at least, nobody reported it."

"Have any of the officers been outing out of character? Say, more arrogant than normal or more aggressive?"

"No, why?" I didn't answer. I was too worried about the sample of ooze to do anything but get to STAR Labs as quickly as possible.

**STAR Labs-Manhattan, New York-August 8-20:27**

Two hours after I arrived, a STAR Labs tech finally returned with the results of the test. "Well, Torch, the results are in, and it appears that the substance is biological, extraterrestrial material. It also seems to be parasitical in nature, it consumes the host if it doesn't feed often enough."

"Slag it! This is not good! Burn that, every piece of it!" I shouted at the techs. My worst fears had nearly been confirmed, but I wasn't going to believe it until I saw the creature with my own eyes. I immediately took off for an area that I knew the creature typical hung out, ignoring the calls of the tech. I also called Simmons. "Detective Simmons, have you been seeing any black webs around the city recently?"

_"Now that you mention it, kid, yeah, we have. Why?"_

Slag it, it is him! "Have they been showing up in any particular area more than others?"

_"Somewhat, mostly around Central Park and Columbia University, why?"_

"Simmons, tell the others to head to both places and be prepared for a monster. You'll need to be armed with flamethrowers and sound weapons to fight this guy. Also, be careful, this guy is one of the most dangerous villains out there. He's extremely strong, can shoot webs out of his wrists, and has a sixth sense that allows him to avoid danger. Above all _do not_ let any of the suit touch you, burn it all!"

_"Flamethrowers? Sound weapons? Kid, where do you think you are, Metropolis? We don't have weapons like that?"_

"You don't? Haven't you guys ever dealt with a supervillain threat before?"

_"No, we haven't."_ Figures, on my earth, Manhattan can't go a week without at least one supervillain attacking, and that's not even counting Hydra, AIM and Kingpin, and had at least six superheroes living there full time. Here, they're completely untouched! _"But how difficult can it be? This guy can't be as bad as say, Parasite, can he?"_

"You have no idea, Simmons. You have no idea." I cut the conversation and focused on an extra burst of speed into the repulsors, shooting straight for Columbia University.

**Columbia University-Manhattan, New York-August 8-20:52**

As soon as I arrived, I got a bit of luck, as I spotted Edward Brock/Venom leaving the prestigious college heading towards Harlem. Even though he was closing in on his sixty-fifth birthday, he only looked like he was in his thirties, an influence of the alien symbiote that had bonded to him. Everyone, even Mr Parker had to admit that the symbiote had it's benefits, but it cost a lot in return. Venom, the actual symbiote, fed on it's host in order to survive, and the host had to become a cannibal to survive. Another downside to having Venom bonded to you was that after as long as Brock had been, if it was removed, he was going to die.

The only question was, how did he end up here? Could it be that Dr Strange didn't close the door? If so, then what kind of ramifications could that have, especially for this world? Well, the only way to get any kind of answers was to interrogate him. I immediately sped up, only stopping when I was in front of him. "Brock, how did you get here?"

"Richards? Great, and here we were hoping to start over." Instantly, his clothes changed into the infamous Venom suit.

"If you wanted to start over, you should have ditched your friend," I said, quickly dodging his webs, while shooting a stream of fire at him.

Venom dodged my flames as best he could, but I still managed to hurt him. "You know we can't do that, even if we wanted to, Richards. If we separate, we both die!"

"Answer the question: how did you get here?!" I demanded as I launched two different attacks at him.

Venom was again injured, but he answered the question. "We don't know how we arrived here. We were escaping the Spider on foot when there was a bright flash of light and we were here, where we knew there was no Spider."

"Thank you, Venom." Great, that meant the gate hadn't closed. Who knew what other villains could be here from home, or who from here ended up back there? In any case, this was my mess, and I had to clean it up. And I would start with Venom. I caught him in one of my force fields, used it to separate Brock from Venom and incinerated the suit.

"What have you done?! I'll die without him!" Brock cried out.

"Then die, Brock. This world has enough problems without you adding to them!" I let him go then, and started back to the Zeta Tube site. I could have sworn that I sensed someone else, but I shrugged it off.

**Mount Justice-August 9-0:35**

By the time Shade had arrived to accept my report, Edward Brock Jr had died after having been away from Venom too long. He was quite shocked when he heard what I'd done. _"Why did you confront him when your orders were observation only?"_

"Because I knew him, Shade. I knew him from _my_ reality. And that man has terrorized New York for more than 30 years and killed more than 150 people _on his own_. It was time that someone put him down, and I've done that."

The mysterious hero studied me hard before saying something. _"You know, two years ago, I had to make a hard choice much like yours. A mad telepath called Brainwave created a dirty bomb that would have destroyed an entire city, making it uninhabitable for generations. I made the hard choice, and was nearly booted out of the League for it. I hate that you had to make the same choice, but from now on, call us if you encounter any more threats from your reality."_

"I'll think about it," I answered before heading to bed.

**Undisclosed Location, New York City-August 9-0:45**

Doctor Arthur Light had just called his superiors, and quickly reported on what had happened in Manhattan. "They seemed to have quite the history between them. Unfortunately, Torch seems to have completely destroyed the symbiote, leaving nothing behind but questions. The one piece of good news is that whatever portal brought them here seems to still be open, we simply need to find a way to track it."

The man simply known as L-1 thought for a moment before realizing _"This portal could be of great use in our recruitment efforts."_

_"Zat is assuming that those zat are brought through would support us,"_ the clearly French L-6 cautioned.

_"True,"_ L-3 agreed. _"But think of the power that could be at our disposal. The ability to cross dimensions, and gain unlimited allies. The gains are incalculable."_

_"Yes, but so are the risks,"_ L-2 noted. _"What if we find not allies, but more enemies, especially enemies on the scale of the Justice League?"_

_"We shall explore all options,"_ L-1 decided. _"After all, eventually everyone sees the Light."_


	5. Magic & Mayhem

****Bibbo’s, Metropolis-August 18-17:30** **

 

Alright, I had had enough.  Bruce had tried and failed, now it was my turn.  But unlike Bruce, I was going to go in with reinforcements.  It might be low, but bringing in Lois and Chloe might just be the only way to get Clark to talk about the boy.  Besides, Lois at least would nag him day and night once she found out how he’d been treating Superboy, assuming my own wife didn’t give him hell first.  Both of the cousins agreed to the double date, and we met for lunch at the same diner that Bruce had used, as it was run by a good friend of Superman’s.  After a half hour of catching up and complaining about General Lang, I decided it was time.  “So, Lois, has Clark here told you about the little discovery that Dick and his friends made before they destroyed Cadmus?”

Clark glared at me while Lois just looked intrigued.  “No, he hasn’t.  What kind of discovery?”

Clark wasn’t the only one glaring at me, because Chloe was doing the same thing.  “David Chaim Stone, have you been keeping secrets from me?”

I grinned at her.  “No secrets, it’s just that you and I have been so busy, that I haven’t had time to tell you.  Turns out Cadmus has been living up to it’s name and created some new life, of the Kryptonian variety.  Clark here has gained a son who is about sixteen years old, physically.” I stated with a smirk.  Then I moved in with the killing blow.  “But he has seen fit to leave his training to Bruce, Dinah and Red Tornado.  He will hardly even look at the kid.”  Let’s see him get out of __this__ one.  Lex would be so proud of this trap.

The girls immediately started attacking him, demanding to know why he was doing that, and why he hadn’t told them.  “Quiet!” Clark nearly shouted.  It shocked all three of us, Clark __never__  shouted at us!  “Listen, I have a good reason for being wary of the boy.  A few years ago, Cadmus revealed that they had created a clone of me, a boy that appeared to be 12.  I was ready to welcome him with open arms, but when I went to meet him, he was highly unstable.  The boy, whom Cadmus called Match, was completely controlled by his rage, he destroyed anything and everything he saw.  It got so bad that eventually I knocked him out and Cadmus put him back into a growth pod and cryogenically froze him.  I can't take the risk of this boy turning out the same."

None of us could really fault him there, but I had to raise another point.  "Clark, it's been a month since they got him out, and he hasn't shown anything close to the madness you describe.  A temper, sure, but not madness.  You need to reach out to him, or any chance of a relationship with him will be lost.  Besides, if you tell him about Match, he might even forgive you for the past month."

 

****Mount Justice-August 19-19:39** **

 

We watched as Superboy sparred with Kaldur, and he had already come a long way in his training, both in controlling his strength and learning to fight with his mind as well as his body.  As for me, I was preparing for the mission I knew was coming up soon: finding Kent Nelson, the original Dr Fate.  I instantly stripped myself of my suit and tossed the cube to the gossiping M'gann and Artemis, who were discussing how good of a couple Artemis and Wally would make.  "Hold on to that, would you?" I asked.  "Oh, and by the way, back home, you and Wally are one of the most popular couples," I stated, teasing the archer.  Despite knowing her not even three weeks, I was starting to wonder if I was actually wrong about her.  I really wished the series had come out faster, as I was running out of foreknowledge, fast.

But before I could do any practice, Red Tornado showed up and briefed us on the missing Nelson.  "Kent may simply be on one of his ... walkabouts.  But he is caretaker to the Helmet of Fate, the source of the Doctor's mystic might.  And it is unwise to leave such power unguarded."

"Whatever you say, Red," I jutted in, if only to keep Impulse from embarrassing himself.  "Just give me an image of where he keeps the Helmet," I finished as I put on a sling ring from home.

Red did so as he also gave us the key to the Tower of Fate.  "I must ask though, how are you going to get there?"

"Via an artifact from back home," I grinned.  I then put out my left hand and started drawing a circle in mid-air while pulling at my magic.  Wally stared at me, clearly wondering what I was doing, until silver sparks started flying where I drew the circle.  They continued flying until they combined and created a silver, sparking doorway to the empty field hiding the Tower.  "After you, Wally," I gestured with a smug grin.

"How ... did you do that?"

"Magic," I answered, my grin still in place.  Wally just barely covered his scoff before travelling through the gateway.

 

****Salem, Massachussetts-19:50** **

 

I grinned as I watched Wally try to find the Tower, knowing he could search for a million years and never find it.  "You like watching him fail, don't you?" Superboy asked.

"Are you kidding?  I love it," I said.  For another minute, we watched as he kept trying to bump into it.  "You know, we really should come up with a name for you."

"Superboy's fine with me."

I raised an eyebrow.  "And what about when you go to school or find a job?  And since it's clear that your dad won't do it anytime soon, what would you say to your counterpart's name?"

He just shrugged and said "Let's hear it first."

"Connor Kent, or Kon-El for a Kryptonian name."

He thought for a moment before deciding "I like it," and gave me his first smile in quite some time.  It was then that Wally finally gave up, and Kaldur realized how to enter the Tower.  Once inside, the protections began with what appeared to be a hologram.   _ _"Greetings.  You have entered with a key, but the Tower does not recognize you.  State your purposes and intent, especially as your members include one with a strong talent with the mystic arts."__

And before I could do anything to stop him, Wally proved once again why I call him Impulse by lying to the Tower.  And as in the show, the floor collapsed beneath us.  We all managed to stop before hitting the lava below, and I even managed to save Kon's favorite boots.  "You slaggin' dreg!" I yelled at Wally.  "Magic doesn't conform to the laws you're used to!  You failed to answer the question, so the Tower opened this trap!"  Then I calmed down and stated "We were sent to ensure the safety of the Helmet of Fate!"  And with that, the hole was sealed beneath us, and we all landed on it.

Kaldur was shocked at how cool the platform was, but before any could comment on it, Artemis attacked Wally for nearly getting us killed.  I let them argue until Wally said that everything can be explained by science.  "Is that so?" I demanded.  "Well, I'm willing to bet that by the end of this mission, you will believe in magic."

"Oh really?  And what are the stakes?"

"If I win, I get to say 'I told you so.'  If you win, well I know you still doubt my story about being from another universe where you're all just fiction."

"So?  It's not like you can prove it!"  And with that, I quoted a riddle I had found.

__Who, like a vampire in the night sees all and knows all,_ _

__hides in the shadows and is both man and beast?_ _

__What kind of knight rides a black mount not white?_ _

__What detective is more mysterious than the mysteries he solves?_ _

__What is the only riddle even the Riddler himself cannot solve?_ _

Wally stared at me in shock.  "You can't mean ... you'd tell us?

"Tell us what?" M'gann asked in confusion.

"I know the true identity of the Batman," I explained.  Seeing their confusion, I broke down the riddle.  "A __vampire__  that sees and knows all, hides in the shadows and is both man and animal?  A __bat__  man.  A knight that rides a black horse would be a __Dark Knight__.  An extremely mysterious detective has only been used to describe the __greatest detective__.  A riddle so confusing that even the Riddler can't solve?   _ _Who is the Batman?__   I'm willing to tell all of you who he really is," I finished with a smirk.

"There's no way you could possibly know that," Wally countered.

"Oh sure, just like I can't possibly know that Barry Allen is the Flash, or that Aquaman was raised in the surface world?  Need I go on, or should I mention Haly’s Circus and Park Row?  Steve Trevor and Themiscyra?  Smallville and a rocket?”  (Kaldur had stared at me in shock at my statement about Aquaman.)

“Okay, okay!  I get it!” he surrendered.

"You know, Wally," I started.  "I know someone who was just like you.  He didn't believe in magic either, he was a man of science, a neurosurgeon, the best in the world.  Someone once described him as 'a man looking at the world through a keyhole, spending his whole life trying to widen it in order to see and do more.  Then, when he heard it could be widened in ways he couldn't imagine, he rejected the possibility.'  You know what happened to him?" I asked.

"What?" Wally demanded.

I grinned as I delivered the punchline.  "He became the Sorcerer Supreme and my teacher in magic: Dr Stephen Strange."  Wally just stared at me in shock, unwilling to believe.  I wasn't surprised, Dr Strange had confessed that he took quite a lot of convincing himself before he believed.

With that discussion finished, Kaldur decided to open the trapdoor in the platform, despite Wally’s warning that we would be roasted.  When the door led us to a snowy mountain his response was “Have you ever heard of string theory?  We’re in a pocket dimension.”

“Well, you’re not wrong,” I said, much to everyone’s shock.  “According to Dr Strange, those of us who use magic do so by harnessing the energy of other dimensions, and can visit certain dimensions,” explaining what I had learned.  That’s when M’gann spotted Nelson’s cane.  Wally joked about it being his wand until I stated “Don’t you know?  Real magic doesn’t require a wand, dreg.”  Together, Wally, Artemis and I grabbed the cane and were then transported to the unusual room with staircases going every possible way, including upside down and sideways.  And as I knew from the show, we arrived on a landing to the side of the fake magician Abra Kadabra, the evil Klarion the Witch-Boy and Kent Nelson.

Kent then used his cane to bring himself to us, and free himself before revealing his hidden elevator.  He then introduced himself to us, with Artemis doing the same with us.  “Well Artemis and Tony, we’re up against an opponent with tremendous mystic power.”  Wally butted in explaining how Abra Kadabra just used futuristic technology.  “He’s right,” Nelson and I stated when Artemis got after him.  “Abra __is__  a charlatan,” Nelson continued.  “But Klarion the Witch-Boy, the kid with the cat, he’s an actual Lord of Chaos, the ultimate enemy of a Lord of Order like Dr Fate.”

“Unfortunately, due to the nature of the universe, neither of you can truly defeat the other,” I added.  Nelson nodded, while Wally scoffed at the idea that Nelson was a Lord of Order.  “Mr. Nelson was ... shall we say, a host for Dr Fate, who, by the way is actually called Nabu.  Beings like Nabu and Klarion need ties to this dimension in order to act, thus the Helmet of Fate being intrinsically tied to Dr Fate.  Without the helmet, there is no Fate,” I explained.

“You seem to know quite a bit about the mystic arts,” Nelson stated, so I quickly explained my history with Dr Strange.  Then I turned to Wally and reminded him “I still think you would have liked him.”  That was when we arrived at the top of the elevator, revealing another landing, this one with a large bell over it.  Knowing what was coming, I quickly conjured a mandala to shield us from Abra’s blasts.  “Artemis, Kon, keep Abra busy!” I called out as the rest of our team arrived from the mountain.  Once they started doing that, I quickly cast the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak around Abra to bind him.  Then I chanted one of the few spoken spells Strange taught me:

__By the power of the Dread Dormammu,_ _

__Let the mists of time envelop thee-_ _

__Let the centuries reclaim their own!_ _

And with that, a red mandala completely encased Abra and sent him back to his own time.  Well, that was unusually effective.  I wondered why Dr Strange told me only to use it in most dire need.  Anyways, for my next stop, I used the sling ring to send myself to the top of the Tower of Fate, only to find that Wally had put on the Helmet and had already defeated Klarion, though Kent had still died.  I smiled, knowing that for Wally, the keyhole had been widened and that Kent had been reunited with his spitfire.  “Told you so,” I stated with a smirk as I took us home.

 

__Unbeknownst to anyone, a pulse of power raced from the Tower of Fate at many times the speed of light.  Yet even at that great speed, it would still take the pulse more than six months to reach it's destination.  For it's destination, and master, was beyond the edge of the universe, in the space between spaces._ _

 

****Mount Justice-August 27-13:00** **

 

A week had passed, and in that time we suffered our first loss.  Even with my comic knowledge, we couldn’t beat the newly-created Clayface so the team decided to go home in order to recover.  Everyone else had gone home, so that left Kon, M’gann and myself at the base.  M’gann was getting ready to make another attempt at cooking, Kon was sitting in front of a blank TV, while I was pondering what had happened to bring Venom to this world.   “Would you like me to turn that on?” M’gann asked out of the blue.

“No,’ Kon answered.

“He’s using it to focus and block out his super-hearing,” I explained.  Both of them turned to me in shock, but whatever they were going to say was cut off when one of the holographic monitors activated.

It started with a report from the UN by Cat Grant with National News.   _ _“Where the attackers came from or their motive is unclear at this time, but it is clear that their technology is far beyond ours.”__

When I finally caught a glimpse of the attackers, I froze in shock.  I __knew__  those ships!  Those green skull ships with tentacle legs that were armed to the teeth, the green and yellow armored goons, and the green robots with beam weapons could only be Hydra, but how did they get here?  I had assumed that Dr Strange’s portal had taken a little while longer to close then we had assumed, thus allowing Venom to go through, but there was no way that Hydra could have come through and stayed quiet this long!  I turned to M’gann and Kon and told them “Call Superman and the Lanterns, I’m going to need their help!  And tell your dad to grab the Phantom Zone Projector!”

“Where are you going?” Kon asked.

“New York, where else?”  With that, I flew through the zeta-beam teleported and then off to the UN.  Fortunately my drop-off point was in the middle of Hell’s Kitchen, so I was just a few miles from the UN and with Stark’s repulsor tech built into my basic suit, I made it there before UN security was completely overwhelmed.  By then, the Hydra army had been whittled down to only a __small__  army, but there were still two skull ships and a dozen dreadnoughts.  Naturally the UN hadn’t been able to take any of __those__  out.  “Hey, Hydra nuts!” I called out over my loudspeaker.  “I think you should know that you’re in an alternate universe, and you are all that exists of Hydra here.  There is no AIM, no SHIELD, no SWORD, not even an Avengers.  You are fighting a war that has never happened in a world you know nothing about.”

“You really think we care about that, Richards?” an all too familiar voice called out from the lead skull ship.  “If there is no Hydra here, then we will be it’s creators.  And with no SHIELD or Avengers, there’s no one who can stop us,” Brock Rumlow, aka Crossbones answered.  Then he resumed their attack on the UN.

“Well, that could have gone better,” I told myself.  Okay, first things first, the skull ships had to be taken out.  As dangerous as the dreadnoughts were, they were nothing more than giant robots, the army couldn’t do too much damage so long as they stayed outside.  The ships on the other hand carried some of Hyrdra’s most dangerous weapons, including some powerful enough to take down buildings.  Fortunately, with the ships made to resemble Hydra’s symbol, they left a clear weakness, one that I now took advantage of: the glass eyes.  I quickly charged up my flames and dived into the eye of the nearest skull ship and attacked the Hydra goons inside.  Fortunately, Hydra was something that everyone back home had experience fighting, so the goons were out cold fast.  With them down, I burned through the power source and destroyed it before moving on to the other.  This one I knew was going to be dangerous.  Rumlow was one of Hydra’s most dangerous soldiers, so much so that he was a regular threat to Captain America and his allies.

Before I could even make a move for it though, Rumlow’s ship fired at me, forcing me to put up a force-field, but even that didn’t keep me from being blasted into the midst of the dreadnoughts.  I threw up a force-field as soon as I recovered, but even then, it was too close and I was nearly blasted by lasers from multiple sources.  When the laser fire didn’t let up even after five minutes, I knew I had to do something about it, so I opened a small hole and let loose a few concentrated blasts of fire at their heads, taking about half a dozen out.  Seeing how effective it was, I decided to try again, but this time my shots were stopped by shields.  “Not good,” I told myself.  Hydra’s dreadnoughts had often had shields, and every time they made more, they upgraded the shields.  Until now, concentrated flames like I had been using had always worked before, and now I didn’t know if there was anything in the entire potential arsenal I had in my suit that could pierce their shields.  Instead, I flew up, keeping my shield up and charged at the other skull ship.

As soon as I crashed through the eye, the goons opened fire on me, intent on bringing down my shield, but with a little of the martial arts training that I’d been receiving, they were all taken out.  All that is, except for the last: Crossbones himself.  I knew better than to try and just charge him, he’s too good for that to work, but I also couldn’t take him through strategy, he was too good for that.  But what did that leave?  Before I could come up with an idea, he hit me with his gauntlet and I was thrown out of the ship and into the UN building.  The next thing I knew was a familiar voice saying “Don’t worry kid, we’ll take things from here.”

I looked up just in time to see Hal Jordan fly off towards the skull ship.  At the same time, a tremendous heat wave passed by me.  I turned just in time to watch as the dreadnoughts were melted into piles of slag, clearly by Superman’s heat vision.  The two of them were quick to clean up, and just as quick to confront me.  “So, any explanation about who these people are, Storm?  I heard that you confronted them sometime after the initial attack,” Superman stated.

“To my shame, I do.  These people are part of a terrorist group called Hydra, they’re from my Earth, and I think I’m responsible for them being here.”  Just then, an old SHIELD incident ran through my mind.  “GL, could you unmask them, please?  I need to make sure these guys are all regular goons.”  Hal looked at Superman, shrugged, then did so, removing about a dozen at a time until I saw the one I was looking for.  “Hello, Mr Williams, I’ve been expecting you.”  Then I grabbed his right wrist and started burning it.

“Kid, what did you think you were doing?” Hal demanded once he had wrested my hand away.  “Don’t you know we don’t torture people?”

“Take a closer look, GL.  There’s not a bit of burnt flesh on him,” I countered.

“What’s going on, Torch?” Superman demanded when they realized I was telling the truth.

“Eric Williams, aka the Grim Reaper is a cyborg, he’s had his right arm replaced in order to contain a metal scythe, thus his code name.  He did this once before, in order to infiltrate a prison and free other Hydra goons.”

“And kill as many SHIELD agents as possible, don’t forget that, Richards,” Reaper said with a smile.  “My scythe isn’t the only reason for my name.”

It took all my self-restraint to keep from killing him then and there!  Reaper had been responsible for killing my Uncle Johnny only two years earlier, and he had not been the first or last hero that the Reaper had killed.  Instead, I came up with a much worse punishment.  “Superman, do you have a way to access the Phantom Zone?  If so, toss Crossbones and the Grim Reaper inside, the rest of these goons can go to a regular prison.”

Superman gave me an odd look, but he grabbed the two supervillains and flew off north, probably to the Fortress.  Jordan turned to me and asked me one thing.  “So, if these guys are from your reality, how did they show up here?  I get the feeling that dimension travel isn’t exactly easy.”

“Depends on the dimension you want to visit,” I answered.  “Similar dimensions are easy to reach, but with ones as radically different as ours, it’s nearly impossible.  It’s so difficult that I needed an item of nearly infinite power to get here, and I think that’s the source of our … no, my problem.  I need to talk to Zatara to be sure though.”

 

****Mount Justice-August 29-13:16** **

 

I wasn’t able to speak to Zatara until the next day due to his work as a magician.  He eventually showed up though, and was quick to ask “So, how can I help you, Mr Storm?”

“I need your help finding the magical portal I used to come to this world.  I have very strong evidence that it’s still open and allowing dangerous beings from my universe into this one.  Unfortunately, I have no idea as to how to find it, or close it,” I explained.

“I see,” he responded, with only a raised eyebrow to reveal his shock.  “Well, finding it should be easy enough.”  He quickly pulled up a hologram of the globe and cast a spell.  “Etacol retnecipe fo yrecros!” but nothing happened.  “Perhaps it would help if I could get a feel for your magic?”  I quickly conjured a basic mandala, and when Zatara had examined it, he cast his spell again, and a red circle appeared on the globe.  There was just one problem: it was constantly moving.  “What is going on?” Zatara demanded.

“The problem is that the portal is staying put while the Earth moves, it wasn’t locked to a single location,” Jordan explained.  “Sorry, but you were taking a while, John.  My ring was able to track down your portal, but I wasn’t able to close it.”

I groaned at that, but Zatara and I quickly used the Zeta Beam tubes to get ahead of the portal.  Once there, we both cast spells that should have closed it, but we failed.  “I do not believe we are powerful enough to close the portal,” Zatara said.  “A powerful magical artifact must have been used in combination with your Doctor Strange in order to open the portal.”

I winced at that, as I now knew why the portal had stayed open.  “We used an artifact of infinite potential to open it, due to the incompatibility of our two universes.  I thought we’d need it to keep the portal stable, I never expected it to keep the portal __open__!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really, what other reason could there be for the big blue boy scout to be so stand-offish with Kon? And not only have I covered that, but the first step to what will become my first original, multi-chapter arc covering the time between Seasons 1 and 2. Also, I’d like a riddle that leads to a specific place in Gotham, and the answer to the riddle. Finally, the Hydra skull ships and dreadnoughts are all owned by Marvel and Disney and originate in The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, a great show cut off too early.


	6. Memories

**Chapter Seven: Memories**

**Bialyan Desert-September 4** **th** **, 00:16**

I staggered awake, utterly confused. Why was I in a desert when I should be in the Sanctum Santorum for my weekly training? There were no deserts near Kamar-Taj! Where _was_ I? I quickly activated my holographic map only to find " _Iraq_?! What the hell am I doing in Iraq?!" I was just about to call SHIELD when I noticed several major problems. First, the date was off by about 20 years. Second, the Iraqi flag was one that never appeared in Iraq's history. Third, Syria was labeled as Qurac, and Iraq was labeled as Bialya. Wait … had I traveled to a DC universe? But I hadn't even figured out _how_ to do it … how much time have I lost, and how?

Then I heard a voice asking "Who are you? Do you know where we are?"

I turned to face the speaker, only to freeze in shock. The boy was dressed in a simple black t-shirt and jeans, was built like a football jock, and had the most unique blue eyes I had ever seen. There was no question as to who he was. "My name is Tony, Tony Richards, and we're in Bialya, which means we're not safe right now. Come on, it looks like there's a cave up there, we can spend the night there and figure things out in the morning." Fortunately, Superboy agreed and we quickly fell asleep.

**Bialyan Desert-September 4, 12:26**

We woke up about 9:30, and after explaining what I though had happened, I asked Superboy to stand guard while I delved into my mindscape to try and figure things out. By now I had found a few fragmented memories. Some dealt with Superboy and a few others, but there were a few where I saw Nightwing, and one where I was making a deal with Riddler. "Superboy, could you come in here real quick?"

"What do you want, Tony?"

"I'm sorry, but I need to mind meld with you. I'm hoping it will help with our memory loss." Reluctantly, he agreed, and together I managed to piece together a few complete memories, including my arrival on Earth-16, Superboy's rescue, and our mission to the Tower of Fate. I also realized that we had lost about three months' worth of memoires.

"We need to find the others," Connor announced. "Can you do that?"

"They're all probably on foot, but that won't make finding them easy. Fortunately, Robin placed a GPS locator with our spare gear and weapons, we'll just meet with them there. They're sure to show up eventually."

I was proven right as that night, Robin arrived only for him to be ambushed by Bialyans. Kon and I were quick to join the fight, with Kon taking bullets for Rob while I blasted any I could with my repulsors, and then the others joined in as well, with Wally stealing weapons, M'gann knocking soldiers down and Artemis tying them up with a bola-arrow. Wait a second … "Where's Aqualad?"

"Who's Aqualad?" Artemis demanded. "In fact, who are all of you?"

I ignored her. "M'gann, we need to link our minds and piece together the last three months." The rest of the team hesitated, especially Artemis. "Listen, it's the only way we'll get our memories back and understand what happened! I know you're hesitant, but we need to do what's necessary if we're to have any hope of surviving this and going home." With that, everyone agreed, no matter how reluctant they were (looking at you, Artemis.) Soon, we had remembered everything, partly due to my memories of watching this mission and we set off looking for Kaldur.

Sure enough, we found him just as the episode showed we would: dehydrated and hallucinating. "M'gann, take him to the bioship, Kon and I have another job to do. I'd ask for others, but I know Artemis is running low on arrows and Wally is running on fumes, while you're going to need Robin to avoid the Bialyans. Come back for us if we're not back in an hour."

"Tony, you're going to _need_ me if you're going up against Psimon," M'gann argued. "We both know I'm far more powerful of a psychic than you are, and your memories showed him almost beating me."

I just smiled and said, "Trust me." With that, Kon and I made for the base, and sure enough, they were still 'testing' the Sphere. "Okay, Kon, I need you to take out the guards and free the Sphere, I'll deal with Psimon."

"Are you sure?" he asked, but I was already flying away. To be honest, I _wasn't_ as sure as I acted about whether I could take him or not. I mean, I've battled a few telepaths before, but I've never been able to consistently beat them. I'm just hoping that Psimon is mostly a brute-strength telepath than one used to strategy. My mental shield certainly hadn't helped much against him, all it did was buy us three months of memories that we wouldn't have had without it.

Sure enough, as soon as I arrived in the tent, Psimon recognized me as a fellow telepath and attacked. I instantly countered with a magical shield, only for him to blast it apart. _So, experienced in mental battles, are we? Well so is Psimon_. He then conjured copies of himself to attack me from multiple directions. I countered with a shield before descending to the ground to limit his attack vectors. Fortunately, this was _my_ mind we were fighting in, and I had already prepared the perfect counterattack, one that none could stand up to. I smiled and summoned my great weapon, one that no telepath had ever stood up to before, no matter their power. When the signal started, Psimon stopped his attack and demanded _What is this? Why is this music playing?_

 _This is how_ _ **I**_ _fight a telepathic battle, Psimon,_ I answered with a smirk. Then, added to the music was a steady shaking of the ground, the pounding of footsteps, and a roar that none who had ever heard it would mistake for anything else. _Behold, the Avatar of Destruction, the Alpha Titan, the King of the Monsters: Godzilla!_ With that, Godzilla fired his atomic breath at Psimon, blasting him away as he BARELY managed to put a shield up in time.

 _So, you've learned how to use constructs to defend yourself? Well Psimon knows that technique as well. Behold Psimon's ultimate creation: the Emperor of Chaos, God of the Sky! Come forth the Golden Demise: King Ghidorah!_ With his call, three black holes appeared in the sky, with lightning bolts striking from the singularities. Then the three heads of what is truly the most dangerous monster ever created appeared. I absolutely panicked, because this was the most dangerous version of Godzilla's most dangerous foe, and Psimon was _definitely_ proving he knew the creature, as it was able to attack and damage Godzilla while my kaiju could do nothing to defend himself. Now, if I could just remember how to make Ghidorah be affected by things on this plane! It took me too long to create Godzilla Earth for me to be able to afford losing him.

The problem with that was that the section of the movie was _extremely_ metaphysical and symbolic. Then I remembered the solution: because that Ghidorah was a being from another dimension, it needed eyes that were bound to both itself and our universe. Immediately, I started attacking the duplicates of Psimon, looking for the one with the eye. Luckily, creating things like Ghidorah and Godzilla required a lot of concentration, especially in the beginning when you had little practice. While I had trained with Professors Xavier and Jean Grey to maximize my ability to use such constructs, I was sure Psimon had rarely used such tactics, which meant all his power was being used to maintain and control Ghidorah while I could still fight! I grinned; _this_ was why I used constructs in a mental battle, because now I could take Psimon down with ease. Finally, with one Psimon left, I conjured my favorite fictional weapon and cut off his head. _That_ should take him out of commission for a few months! With Psimon taken care of, I returned to the physical plane and found Kon had scared off all the scientists and freed the sphere, which had still bonded with him. "Can we keep it?" he asked, sounding just like a kid who'd found a stray kitten or puppy. Between the sound of his voice and his pleading blue eyes, I couldn't say no and we rejoined the others before heading home.

**Mount Justice-September 5, 9:16**

Upon our return, all our mentors were waiting, but with them was someone surprising: my father, Superman. Flash was quick to explain that they had become worried when we didn't return on schedule and gathered in the mountain in order to wait for our return and monitor the bioship. I looked at Superman, only for him to gesture towards a side room. Curious, I decided to follow him and when we arrived, he sat down. "Superboy, I have an apology to make. I have mistreated you, and I can only hope that it's not too late for me to make it up to you."

I was completely shocked, because I never expected Superman to apologize for anything. "Why are you apologizing?"

"For the way I've been treating you. I want to explain, and maybe have a chance for us to start anew … if you aren't opposed, that is?"

"I'd like that, _if_ your explanation is good enough." So, Superman explained: much to my shock, I was _not_ the first clone of Superman that Cadmus had created. The first was called Match, and while he was a pure clone, because of the primitive nature of the human genetic work and the complexity of the Kryptonian genome, Match had serious mental problems. Match attacked Superman, and he was forced to put Match into cryostasis. Because he met Match, Superman feared that I would turn out like him, and kept his distance. "Why did you change your mind then?" I asked.

"Well, to be honest, I don't think I would have for a few more months if it wasn't for Shade. When he mentioned that you hadn't shown any signs of the problems that Match had, I decided to check for myself. I was still going over the reports when I heard that you were overdue. I nearly panicked when I heard that, and I was halfway here before I stopped and realized what that meant."

"What does it mean?" I asked, hoping against hope.

"That no matter how you came into this world, or how long you have in it, you are family, and I should start treating you as such … if you're willing, that is?"

I couldn't help but smile as I said, "I'd like that, Superman."

"My name is Clark Kent, or Kal-El, not Superman," he said with a smile. "Kal will do when we're suited up, but in private call me Clark."

"I'm Conner Kent or Kon-El."

Clark raised an eyebrow at that and asked, "Who gave you those names?"

"Tony, or Torch, he joined us during the Mr. Twister incident."

Clark had a curious look in his face at my answer. "Did he now? Interesting."

**Hall of Justice-Sept 8, 14:16**

The League was curious, as this was the first time that Roy had asked to meet with us since Independence Day. While we had been keeping an eye on him, this was the first time he sought us out. "We have a problem," Roy started, which instantly put us on edge. "Lex Luthor knows who most of us are, he told me so himself."

" _How noble of you, Mr Harper, but I don't think your rent will pay itself. Why not take my money, at least enough to hold onto your apartment for a few more months?"_

" _How do you know that name?!"_

" _I know the identities of most of the League, Mr Harper, but I prefer to keep my relationships with the League on a professional level. For example, if Green Arrow attacks one of my side businesses, that doesn't keep me from making a perfectly legal deal with Oliver Queen. Secret identities are there for a reason after all, and I can respect that. Ask Superman if you don't believe me. I've known who he is for years and I've never done a thing against his other persona. What's more, he knows that I know."_

"He's telling the truth," Superman said. "He's known who I am for years and never done a thing against me in my civilian life. Lex is actually very civil most of the time and made a deal with me."

"What kind of deal?" Batman demanded.

"So long as I don't use anything I learned as Superman in my articles, Clark Kent is left alone by the villains. I will talk to him though and make sure he won't reveal any of your identities."

" _You do what you wish, Kal,"_ I responded. _"But I will ensure that he actually keeps them a secret or wipe them from his mind along with anyone else he told."_

"Do what you must," Batman responded. "However, this time you must keep your actions within the limits of what the rest of the League deem acceptable. Otherwise you will be censured." I just smirked, doubting the League could do anything that would really harm me without harming themselves.

**Robinson Park, Gotham-Sept 11, 10:29**

Well, my plans to change this world's potential future were coming together. I was now beyond my knowledge of this Earth and left only with the potential knowledge from the many alternate Earths I knew of. Right now, I was waiting on Selina to arrange a meeting between myself and another of Gotham's rogues. It was far from the first time I had dealt with them, Cobblepot had only just last night arranged my meeting with Selina by spreading a rumor that I had a golden image of Bast that I was going to sell. That rumor allowed me to talk to Selina, which had led to this one at the Forum of the Twelve Caesars.

"Hey, what gives? Who are you?" the deranged voice asked.

I smiled. "Hello Harley, it's good to meet you." Then I noticed something, something that the comics and shows had hinted at, but never confirmed. I now had confirmation of what we had all suspected. I brushed my hand against the bruise on her cheek and asked, "He did this to you, didn't he?"

"What do you want, Torch?" she demanded. "Are you here to make fun of me? Say that I should have known what I was getting into with Mistah J and that I deserve this? That I should be locked up?"

"No one deserves to be abused, Harley," I answered with a sad smile. "And while I think you need the kind of help you once offered others, I think that because of how you let Joker treat you, nothing else. If anything, once you are free of the Joker, you are probably the freest person alive because you do what you want to do regardless of what others think of you. Harley, if you can help me, I _swear_ to you that I _will_ free you of the Joker, no matter what it takes or how long it takes."

She hesitated, but finally asked "What do you want?" I simply smiled as I explained what I needed from her, and why. "Okay, I hope you know what you're doin', or Mistah J is going to hunt you down."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know that Lex is OBSESSED with defeating Superman in most media. However, in this case I'm portraying him as the genius businessman he is most of the time rather than classic supervillain. Oh, he's still obsessed with defeating Superman, but he respects Clark Kent as a reporter, thus the deal I mentioned. Besides, I want to give Kon something at least CLOSE to a healthy relationship with both of his parents, something you almost never see in fanfics as most authors seem to think he has to pick one or the other


End file.
